Class 




Hook^iiLS 



IS o ^ 

SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT. 



Volume 1 



UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 

IN 

EDUCATION 

1893-1899 



NOTES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
A CHILD 



MILICENT WASHBURN SHINN 



BERKELEY 

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 



<^^-<L^ > 



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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 



EDUCATION 'Tjn 



VOLUME 1 



BERKELEY 

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
1893- 1899 

Reprinted March, 1909 



PUBLISHER'S NOTE. 



In this edition of the Notes on the Development of a Child (originally 
issued as University of California Studies, Volume 1) pages 1-178 are 
reprinted from the original plates. A slight change in the wording has 
been made on page 93 m the last paragraph, and on page 104 the erro- 
neous citation of a title has been corrected. 

A title page and a table of contents for the volume have been added, 
and a list of errata. The latter have been furnished by the author from her 
own copy of the earlier edition, and the list contains all the corrections, 
including a few of only minor importance, which she has noted. 

A continuation of the author's studies has been issued under the title 
The Development of the Senses in the First Three Years of Childhood as 
Volume 4 of the University of California Publications in Education, of 
which series the present volume now forms Volume 1. This later volume 
contains an index to both volumes 1 and 4, which may be regarded as 
comprising parts 1 and 2 of the Notes on the Development of a Child. 



March, 1909. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Publisher's Note. 
List of Errata. 

Introduction. By Joseph LeConte -.. iii 

Author's Introduction 5 

Measurements and Health, First and Second Years 7 

Sight, First and Second Years 10 

.^1. Sensibility to Light , 10 

2. Movements of Lids : 12 

3. Movements of Balls : 13 

4. Fixation :....; 14 

5. Direction 22 

6. Color ■.. 25 

7. Form 57 

8. Pictures and other Eepresentations 71 

9. Interest in Seeing 79 

10, Interpretation , 85 

Measurements and Health in the Third Year 89 

Sight in the Third Year 91 

'1. Sensibility to Light 91 

2. Color 91 

3. Form ;..; ...^ .....:. 96 

4. Pictures ....:. 103 

5. Interest in Seeing : : 105 

Hearing .: , 107 

1. Sensibility to Sound , 107 

2. Direction :.....:.. : ...^. : 109 

3. Eecognition and Discrimination of Sounds Ill 

4. Music : 115 

5. Interest in Hearing .- 129 

The Dermal Senses 136 

1. Sense of Contact 136 

1. General and Local Sensibility 136 

2. Discrimination by Touch 139 

3. Interest '. 142 

2. Pain 144 

1. Sensibility ' '. 144 

2. Interest 151 

3. Temperature Sense 154 

4.. Other Dermal Sensations : 157 

5. Words of Dermal Sensation 157 



PAGE 

Taste ^^^ 

1. Sensibility 160 

2. Special Preferences 163 

3. Interest 167 

Smell. - 1'^ 

1. Sensibility 174 

2. Interest ^"^^ 

Sensations of Muscular Activity, Motion, and Position 179 

1. Muscular Sensation 179 

2. Sensation of Motion 200 

3. Sensations of Position 207 

4. Sensations of Equilibrium 209 

Organic Sensations 211 

1. Hunger and Satiety 211 

Dietary and Digestion 230 

First Year - 230 

Second Year 232 

Third Year 233 

2. Thirst - 234 

3. Nausea 234 

4. Other Organic Sensations 235 

General Sensation 237 

1. Sensations of Well-being and Discomfort 237 

2. Sleep, and Attendant States of Sensation 252 

Spontaneous Movements 299 

Eeflex Movements 303 

Instinctive Movements 306 

1. Grasping 306 

Differentiation of the Forefinger Tip as Special Organ of 

Active Feeling 322 

Use of Right and Left Hand 323 

2. Equilibrium and Locomotion 325 

First Two Months: Holding up and Turning the Head, and 
Progress toward Sitting 325 

Third Month to End of the Half-year: Sitting, Turning 
Over, and Primitive Leg and Trunk Movements 327 

Seventh and Eighth Months: Secure Sitting; Raising Self 
to Sitting Position; Rolling, and First Creeping Move- 
ments; Beginning of Standing 335 

Ninth Month: Raising Self to Sitting Position; Progress in 
Creeping; Varied Scrambling About; Progress in Stand- 
ing; First Walking Movements 339 

Tenth Month: Rapid and Free Creeping; Standing Alone; 

Stepping by a Support; Beginning of Climbing 344 

Eleventh Month: Progress in Standing Alone, Climbing, and 
Stepping by a Support _ 350 



PAGE 

Twelfth Month: Eaising Self to the Feet; Climbing; Begin- 
ning of Walking Alone 357 

Thirteenth Month: Walking Alone; Climbing; Decline of 

Creeping - 359 

Fourteenth Month: Secure Walking; Beginning of Running; • 

Progress in Climbing 362 

Fifteenth Month to End of Third Half-year 365 

Fourth Half-year 373 

Third Year '. 381 

3. Instincts Connected with Food-taking 386 

Sucking, Licking, Smacking, Biting (with record of denti- 
tion). Spitting Out - 386 

4. Other Instinctive Movements 392 

Summary and Tables Relating to the Non-Ideational Movements.... 397 

I. Spontaneous Movements. Table 1. Spontaneous Movements 397 

II. Reflex Movements. Table 2. Commoner Reflexes 398 

III. Instinctive Movements. Table 3. Development of Grasping 399 

Table 4. Priority of Mouth in Touch and Prehension 401 

Table 5. Sequence of Stages to Hand-grasping 302 

Table 6. Grasping: Comparative Chronological Table 405 

Table 7. Movements of Equilibrium and Locomotion; 

Chronological Succession 406 

Table 8. Extreme Dates of Acquiring Instinctive Move- 
ments 412 

Table 9. Instincts Connected with Food-taking 419 

Other Records of the Instinctive Movements 320 

From Mrs. Beatty's MS Record 420 

From Mrs. Sharp's MS Record 422 

From MS Records of Mrs. Edith Elmer Wood, B.L., Smith College.... 423 



ERRATA. 



Page 14, line 8 from bottom, for aquired read acquired. 

Page 18, line 10, for latter part of eighth month read latter part of ninth 

month. 
Page 97, lines 1, 2, and 5, for 56th week read 109th uwek. 
Page 98, line 1, for 56th iveeli read 109th week. 
Page 98, line 4, for 58th week read 110th uwek. 
Page 99, line 1, for 60th loeek read 113th week. 
Page 100, line 1, for 58th week read llOth week. 
Page 100, line 2, for 61st tueek read 113th week. 
Page 100, line 9, for 6^d week read 114th week. 
Page 100, last line, for 63d week read '115th week. 
Page 101, line 1, for 99th week read 15Sd iveek. 
Page 110, line 18, for 59^d day read 590th day. 
Page 114, line 15, for 633d day read 635th day. 
Page 118, line 11, for in the twenty-prst month read in the twenty-second 

month. 
Page 118, line 11, for twenty-fi^rst month, 632d day read twenty-second month. 

662d day. 
Page 118, line 16, for A month later, the 665th da^ read A week later, the 

670th day. 
Page 134, line 21, for at eighteen months read at thirty months. 
Page 153, line 14, for fourteenth month read fifteenth month. 
Page 153, line 11 from bottom, for end of the fourteenth and beginning of 

the fifteenth read end. of the fifteenth and h eg inning of the sixteenth. 

Page 159, line 1, for nineteenth month read fifteenth month. 

Page 170, line 5 from bottom, for twenty-sixth month read twenty-second 
month. 

Page 175, line 4 from bottom, for and in the latter part of the tiventieth 

month read and in the twentieth month. 
Page 176, line 4 from bottom, for twentieth month read tiventy-first month. 
Page 181, line 19, for first week of the third month read last week of the 

second month. 

Page 183, line 13, for twenty-first month read ttventy-second month. 
Page 183, line 18, for eighteenth month read twenty-first month. 
Page 185, line 13, for thirteenth month read fourteenth month. 



Page 185, line 17, for nineteenth month read twenty-first month. 

Page 185, line 11 from bottom, for twenty-first month read twenty-second 

month. 
Page 186, line 15 from bottom, for tioenty months read twenty-one months. 
Page 186, line 11 from bottom, for on one day in the twenty-first month read 

on two days in the twenty-second month. 
Page 232, line 11 from bottom, for S7th week read 57th weeJc. 
Page 236, line 3, for 87th weel: read 86th week. 
Page 249, line 16, for 34"- C. read 35i° C. 
Page 284, line 4 from bottom, for 6^1st day read 6i5th day. 
Page 285, line 17, for 6mth day read 6£8th day. 
Page 286, line 11, for twenty-fi,rst month read twenty-second month. 
Page 287, line 15, for at the end of the twenty-fi.fth month read on the first 

night in the twenty-sixth month. 
Page 287, line 21, for fowr nights read three nights. 
Page 294, line 7 from bottom, for twenty-seventh month read twenty-sixth 

month. 
Page 295, line 14, for fourteenth month (4S3d day) read fifteenth month 

(450th day). 
Page 391, line 11 from bottom, for lower first molar read lower first molar, 

right. 
Page 391, line 7 from bottom, for lower first molar read lower first molar, 

left. 
Page 405, under Beatty, line 7, after ' ' Grasping upon Accidental Contact, ' ' 

insert 17th tveek. 
Page 405, under Beatty, for 19th iveek read 15th week. 



Notes on 
The Development of a Child 

By 

MiLicENT Washburn Shinn, Cand. Phil. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is a well-recognized fact in the history of science that the 
very subjects which concern our dearest interests, which lie near- 
est our hearts, are exactly those which are the last to submit to 
scientific methods, to be reduced to scientific law. Thus it has 
come to pass that while babies are born and grow up in every 
household, and while the gradual unfolding of their faculties has 
been watched with the keenest interest and intensest joy by in- 
telligent and even scientific fathers and mothers from time imme- 
morial, yet very little has yet been done in the scientific study 
of this most important of all possible subjects, — the ontogenic 
evolution of the faculties of the human mind. Only in the last 
few years has scientific attention been drawn to the subject at 
all. Its transcendent importance has already enlisted many ob- 
servers, but on account of the great complexity of the phenom- 
ena, and still more the intrinsic difficulty of their interpretation, 
scientific progress has scarcely yet commenced. 

What is wanted most of all in this, as in every science, is a 
body of carefully observed facts. But to be an accomplished in- 
vestigator in this field requires a rare combination of qualities. 
There must be a wide intelligence, combined with patience in 
observing and honesty in recording. There must be also an 
earnest scientific spirit, a loving sympathy with the subject of in- 
vestigation, yet under watchful restraint, lest it cloud the judg- 
ment; keenness of intuitive perception, yet soberness of judgment 
in interpretation. 

Now I am quite convinced, from my intimate acquaintance 
with her, and especially from a careful examination of her work, 

(iii) 



iv Introduction. 

that Miss Shinn possesses many of these qualities in an eminent 
degree. The careful, painstaking, patient, intelligent character of 
her observations must be evident to every reader. The perfect 
honesty of the record and the really earnest scientific spirit in 
which the investigation is undertaken and pursued to the end, 
are equally certain. I am sure, too, I easily detect evidence of 
the loving, sympathetic relation with the subject, necessary for 
insight and yet not sufificient to obscure the judgment. 

I am quite convinced, therefore, that the observations herein 
recorded are thoroughly reliable. If so, it is impossible to over- 
estimate their importance. Of course, interpretation must go 
hand in hand with observation and record; and interpretation in 
a subject so difficult, must be more or less doubtful ; but Miss 
Shinn has shown singular wisdom in the caution and modesty 
with which she draws her conclusions. I feel quite confident 
that the work as a whole deserves, and will receive, the thought- 
ful attention of Psychologists as a valuable addition to the ma- 
terials of their science. 

Joseph Le Conte. 



NOTES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
A CHILD. 

The child of whose development the following record was kept 
was born and has continuously lived on a fruit ranch near Niles, in 
the neighborhood of San Francisco Bay. Her parentage is purely 
American, all four grandparents being descended from early colo- 
nists, — three from New England settlers, the fourth from New Jer- 
sey and Virginia Quakers. I have a detailed record of the condi- 
tions of health and longevity of her kin for two generations pre- 
ceding her; in general these were good, and there is in none of the 
four grandparental lines any family tendency to disease of any sort. 

The temperaments of both parents are sanguine, fond of pleasure 
and change. The education of the father was a university special 
course in history and sociology, taken after thirty years of age; the 
earlier education was considerable but unsystematic, mainly literary 
and historical. That of the mother was systematic through the 
high school period, ending at seventeen years. The occupation of 
the father up to the time of her birth had been chiefly journalistic 
and literary; of the mother, teaching for two years before marriage; 
her remoter ancestors were almost all farming and seafaring people. 
The ages of her father and mother at the time of her birth were re- 
spectively thirty-eight and twenty-two years. 

She was at birth a strong, active, good-natured baby^ without 
defect, and her health has been (now up to the last quarter of the 
third year) practically perfect. She was born two weeks late, — a 
point that may have some bearing on the rapidity of early develop- 
ment. The conditions of climate and opportunities for outdoor life 
have been singularly favorable. 

She has been the only child in a large household of grown peo- 
ple, and the object of a great deal of attention. She has never been 
for an hour in the care of a servant, has never been secluded in a 
nursery, but kept in the midst of the family. She has been taken 

(5) 



6 University of California. [Vol. i. 

about a great deal with her parents upon short raih'oad and hotel 
trips. The general tendency of her environment has been in my 
judgment toward developing a liking for change and excitement,, 
and unfavorable to continuous attention. 

The record as here given is an abstract of copious notes kept 
from day to day, set down in many cases instantly upon the occur- 
rence, and always very promptly. I have admitted in a few instances- 
occurrences reported to me by the child's mother and grandmother,, 
but none reported by any other person (except two in the first 
month by the nurse); in these cases I have always stated that the 
note was at second hand. I am under obligation throughout to 
the mother for invaluable co-operation. 



Shinn.] 



TJie Development of a Child. 



MEASURExMENTS.i 



Weight. 



Height. 



Weight. 



Height. 



At birth 
I mo 

2 

3 
4 
5 
6 

7 
8 

9 
lo 
II 

12 



9 lbs. (naked) ... 
II " (in clothes) 

13 " 

15 " 

(measurement unsatis 

17^4: lbs 

19X 



20 

21 

2I> 

21 

22 

23 



19 in 

19K 

23 

factory) 
24 
25 

26K 
27^ 
27 

27K 
28 
28;^ 



n. 



At 



i3mos 

14 
15 
16 

17 
18 

19 
20 
21 
22 

23 
24 




Girth around breast, in first month, 15 inches; at six months, 
17^ inches; at one year, 18^ inches. 

The measurements of height during the first year seemed to 
me of little value, because the child's struggling disconcerted them, 
in spite of every care. Each measurement, however, was repeated 
three or four times. They were taken by holding the baby straight 
upon a sheet of cardboard, the head against a fixed point, and 
marking at the heels. The measurement of height at eight months 
seems certainly wrong. 

At twelve months the measurement was taken both by laying 
her upon a sheet of cardboard, and by having her stand against the 
wall. Standing she measured 28 inches. During the second year, 
the measurements were taken standing, each one three times or 
more. The child was interested in the process, and tried to stand 
still and straight. 

I have compared the record of weight carefully with my notes 



Following Galton's charts. 



8 University of California. [Vol. i, 

as to the child's health, appetite, spirits, etc., but without finding a 
constant relation. During the first half year the weight increases 
without any marked fluctuation, though between the third and fifth 
months the ratio declines, and this may be due to the fact that near 
the end of the fifth month the mother's nursing was slightly supple- 
mented by other food; after this change she was a little fretful for 
about a week; she also had two teeth coming, which were cut just 
after the close of the month. In the ninth and tenth months six 
more teeth were cut, and during these months and the eleventh she 
was weaned; durmg the eleventh her appetite was noticeably dimin- 
ished, and she had several slight colds and touches of digestive 
derangement, and during the twelfth a persistent cold. Yet the 
only month that shows any falling off in weight, or even any marked 
check in increase, is the tenth. 

In the second year again the only month that shows a decrease 
of weight is the thirteenth, in which no reason appeared for this be- 
yond a slight digestive derangement in the third week, with im- 
paired appetite. During the fifteenth month the increase in weight 
is especially large and an increase of appetite was noticed; yet by 
this month dentition had fairly begun again, and the first molar 
came through early in the moni-h. In the rest of the year, the in- 
crease in weight month by month is very uniform^ except for a 
check in the nineteenth and twentieth, and another somewhere 
between the twenty-first and twenty-third. Yet the teething was 
distributed quite equally through these months to the end of the 
nineteenth, with accompanying rash; and she had more or less cold 
each month before the twentieth. The severest cold and cough 
was in the nineteenth month, and was quite enough to account 
for the check in increase of weight; but no corresponding reason 
for the continued check in the twentieth appeared; nor, on the 
other hand, does any marked increase in weight attend the perfect 
physical vigor after the completion of dentition. In the seven- 
teenth month and thereafter till the twenty-third, a vague loss in 
gayety and physical buoyancy was quite perceptible, though there 
was almost no fretfulness, and the child's muscular strength was 
considerable, for late in the eighteenth month (538th day) she 

^ More rigidly so as the scales recorded no fractions under half pounds. 



Shinn.] The Dcvelopjuent of a Child. 9 

picked up with one hand a flatiron, which weighed seven pounds, 
and walked off a yard or two with it. In the latter part of the 
year, and especially the twenty-fourth month, she seemed over- 
flowing with physical energy, often jumping about and squealing 
in sheer exuberance of spirits. Yet her increase of weight was the 
.same in the seventeenth and twenty-fourth months. 

A weekly record would very likely give clearer results. 



SIGHT. 

I. Sensibility to Light. 

The child seemed quite conscious of the difference between light 
and darkness the first day. At about an hour old, she stopped cry- 
ing instantly when a cover was lifted from her face; and her eyes 
certainly turned toward any person who came near her, from this 
time on through the first and second weeks. As she did not really 
look at anyone before the fourth week, I could only suppose that 
she saw an approaching person as an interruption of the light; her 
eyes turned toward us, however, when we did not pass between her 
and the window. The nurse said that her head and eyes turned 
toward the lamp from the first night on. 

In the third, fourth, and fifth weeks she gazed at light surfaces 
with apparent satisfaction, especially the light of the lamp on the 
ceiling, the face of one holding her, if it was turned toward the 
light, and most of all her mother's forehead, where the wave of 
dark hair rolled away, contrasting with the white skin. On the 
twenty-first day her mother and grandmother noticed her steady 
gaze at a black silk dress crossed with white stripes. 

The twenty-fifth day I observed convulsive shutting of the eyes 
against dazzling light, or against moderate light after sleep or after 
darkness, exactly as described by Preyer; at moderate light under 
other conditions the baby gazed with apparent comfort. 

In the fifth week, twenty-ninth day, she first went outdoors; 
she seemed to dislike the light, and kept her eyes shut. 

After this, pleasure in gazing at bright surfaces was gradually 
displaced by interest in faces. In the sixth week, however, the 
baby gazed a good deal at the angle of the ceiling and wall where a 
dark border joined the light ceiling. In the seventh week (forty- 
seventh day) she stopped in the midst of fretting to gaze through an 
open window at white clothes hanging in the sunlight. 

In the twenty-fifth week she was evidently interested in pro- 
ducing a change of light in playing "peekaboo;" when a handker- 

( lO ) 



Shinn.] TJie Development of a Child. 1 1 

chief was thrown over her face she would first stare about the room 
through it some seconds, then pull it off. 

In the second year, the difference of light and darkness was a 
matter of a good deal of interest. In the twentieth month, 590th 
day, I saw her outdoors, especially when driving, cover her eyes 
several times with her hands. I thought the sunlight might be too 
brilliant, but it is more likely she was experimenting, for in the fol- 
lowing weeks she would often cover her eyes with her hands and 
take them away; hide her face in a cushion, or on her own arms, 
often saying, "Dark!" then lookup, — "Light now!" The 598th 
day, on waking, her first remark was "Light. Aunty make light," 
pointing to a place on the wall where the light must have fallen 
from a concealed candle I had lit in the night. The 6iith day I 
was told she pointed to a mass of dark clouds hanging low, and 
said, " Dark over there." The same day, after hearing a story 
about the moon that interested her much in the twentieth and 
twenty-first months, she asked over and over, " Dark?" Answered, 
"No, it was light after the moon came," she would say, "Light 
now?" or " Dark? No." She then buried her face in a cushion; 
then looked under the cushion, saying softly, "Dark," then down 
behind the lounge, saying, " Dark there." When a curtain was 
raised higher, producing a change in the light, she would comment 
at once, " Light."' I was told that on a railroad trip, 641st day, she 
made no comment on entering tunnels, but regularly ejaculated, on 
-emerging, "Light!" 

In the twenty -third month, 699th day, the moonlit garden, seen 
from the window, seemed to be quite a strange place to her ; she 
did not recognize objects, and when I spoke of the lilies, e.g., 
would say, "Where lilies?" 

In the twenty-fourth month, 720th day, she saw heat lightning. 
When she had been told its name, she ran from one member of the 
family to another, saying earnestly, "Ruth saw flash lightning!" — 
"What did it look like?" she was asked. She shut her eyes as 
tightly as she could, and clinched her hands, saying, " Looked like 
just this way." 



12 University of California. [Vol. i. 



2. Movements of Lids. 

I watched for the various asymmetric movements mentioned by 
Preyer, but no one about my niece was able to see as much asym- 
metry as in the case of his child. The lids were never but twice — 
on the 5 3d and 54th days — unequally raised to any extent that was 
perceptible without close scrutiny; both times were immediately 
after sleep. 

On the 27th day her mother saw the lids raised with a downward 
look, just as noted by Preyer; and for some days after I saw this 
repeatedly myself, the sclerotic coat visible above the iris; I have 
no note of it except when she was in the bath, at which time the 
movements of her eyes were more active and more asymmetric. 
After the first month this look was rare, noted not at all in the sec- 
ond month, but several times at the end of the third and during the 
first half of the fourth, 90th to 105th days; so far as my notes indi- 
cate, it was always when the'baby was being bathed, or wiped after 
her bath. 

On the 104th day I first saw the brow wrinkled in looking 
upward; but for some days before, the skin between the forehead 
and fontanel had wrinkled with this look. 

Contrary to Preyer's observation, she nursed from the first with 
eyes closed ; after the 47th day, the lids were dropped oftener than 
entirely closed; I never but twice saw them open, and on one of 
these occasions it was because she caught sight of a candle as she 
was placed at the breast, and stared at it awhile before closing her 
eyes. I have since watched and inquired about several other babies^ 
and found none that nursed with open eyes. 

We were not able to observe any regular relation between widely^ 
opened eyes and pleasure in the case of my niece. Up to the fifth, 
week her eyes at no time opened as widely as they did from that 
date; and it was not till the seventh week that I noticed them, 
stretched widely, in the bath and while wiped, in connection with, 
signs of satisfaction, — panting, and movements of limbs. She had 
then had instead for a couple of weeks a habit when bathed, or 
undressed by the fire, of fixing her eyes on her mother's face and 
turning her head away, so as to give a curious sidelong look,. 



Shinn.] The Development of a CJiild. 13 

wliich somehow had an unmistakable effect of high satisfaction. 
Up to the 45 th day the look appeared only when she was bathed or 
undressed; on that day once when lying dressed, but very comfort- 
able, on the lounge; after this I have no more note of it; it seems 
to have disappeared as an expression of satisfaction with the ap- 
pearance of the wide-eyed staring, — which, however, never became 
a marked habit. I never saw her shut her eyes under discomfort, 
as having nose or ears washed ; she either submitted indifferently, 
or expressed discomfort by wriggling and uttering little sounds. 
The fallen lids when nursing accompanied an expression of great 
content. In fear and in surprise her eyes were opened wide. 

The first time that she winked at having a head suddenly thrust 
close to her eyes was on the 56th day, when the wink followed 
slowly but regularly, six times without a failure. It had been tried 
in vain almost daily for weeks before. I have noted several in- 
stances of winking at sudden sounds. 139th day when someone 
snapped his teeth together several times a foot or so from her face, 
she winked every time, and looked much surprised; 167th day I 
was told of her winking at the wind; 185th day, banging her rattle 
down in high glee, she winked at every blow. As a general thing 
she was not easily startled, and I saw very few noticeable instances 
of winking. I did not watch for them carefully, however, knowing 
that one should be a physiologist to observe intelligently the reflex 
actions. 

3. Movements of Balls. 

These also were generally symmetric; but occasionally in the 
first and second months, especially the first, there was a distinct 
crossing, and several times in the third month a slight one. When 
in the bath she rolled her eyes about more irregularly than at any 
other time. Notwithstanding that the movements of her eyes were 
generally in unison, there was about them always in the first two 
months a certain appearance of convergence, — as in the case of 
all babies of this age I have noticed; and this look was occasionally 
seen as late as the ninth month, when my last note of it occurs, 
249th day. 



l^ University of California. [Vol. i. 



Fixation. 

I have noted her staring at faces especially, among light surfaces, 
during the third week; this increased in the fourth. On the 25th 
day, as she lay wide awake and comfortable in her grandmother's 
lap, staring thus at her face, with an appearance of attention, I leaned 
down close beside, so as to bring my face into the field of vision. 
The baby turned her eyes (not head) and gazed at my face with the 
same appearance of attention, even effort, in slight tension of brows 
and lips; then back to her grandmother's face, again to mine, so 
several times. This seems clearly Preyer's "second stage" of fixa- 
tion. At last she seemed to become aware of my red gown, or the 
lamplight striking the shoulder, and not only moved her eyes, but 
threw her head far back to look at my shoulder, with a new expres- 
sion, a sort of dim interest, or eagerness. 

The "third stage," the following of an object in motion, I did 
not fix satisfactorily. The nurse, who was a careful observer, said 
that the baby followed the motion of her hand on the 9th day. I 
could not satisfy myself that she did, even as late as the fifth week; 
her eyes seemed sometimes briefly to follow the moving hand, but 
she was so active, moving head and eyes constantly, that I could 
not trust the appearance ; her mother was satisfied that she followed 
the motion. On the 33d day I tried a candle, and her eyes followed 
it unmistakably, rolling as far as they could, and then the head was 
turned to follow still farther. Had I tried a luminous object earlier, 
I might have found that she could follow it. I find that almost all 
mothers and nurses place the attainment of power to follow a mov- 
ing object much earlier than this, usually in the first week. 

In this same week, the fifth, she aquired the h^ibit mentioned 
above of fixing a sidelong look on her mother. 

In the fifth week, too, when held up against the shoulder, she 
would straighten up her head to see around; and thereafter looking 
about, as if to see what she could see, became more and more her 
habit, and together with gazing at faces, was her chief occupation 
till grasping was established. By the tenth week, she would turn 
her head to look about thus. 



Shinn.] TJie Development of a Child. 1 5 

On the 40th day, her eyes for the first time followed the move- 
ment of a person (who had possibly attracted her attention by a 
voice and appearance novel to her) as he moved slowly in a semi- 
circle about the knee where she lay. 

At the close of the eighth week, on the 56th day, as she lay on 
her mother's lap by the fire and I sat close by, she gazed fixedly at 
my face some fifteen minutes without removing her eyes; indeed, 
as her mother turned her, in undressing and rubbing, she screwed 
her head around comically to keep her eyes fixed on me. At last 
she turned her head clear over and looked at her mother's face. 
Her mother turned her again toward mine, which she surveyed for 
a time, then again turned and looked at her mother's; all this with 
serious attention and effort. Whether she had arrived at a clearer 
focusing of our faces than before, and was interested in it, or whether 
this incident was the dawn of recognition of us as separate persons, 
I cannot tell. It was the same day that she had first responded by 
a wink to a threat at her eyes. 

Soon after, 60th day, I saw some indication that she recognized 
her mother, for she stopped fretting when hungry on seeing her 
come in at a door in her line of vision, not three feet away; no cer- 
tain indication, however, for anyone's entrance might have diverted 
her attention. The first unmistakable recognition by sight alone 
was on the 80th day, when she smiled and gave a joyous cry on 
seeing her grandfather enter. She certainly knew her mother before 
this, but whether by sight alone, or by the aid of hearing and touch, 
I could not tell ; and though during the next six weeks she showed 
in many small ways that she distinguished the persons about her 
one from another, I could not get proof that it was by sight only. 
For instance, when I came in in the morning and spoke to her, she 
was accustomed to greet me with smile or cry; on the 167th day, 
I came in without speaking, to see if she would make the same 
demonstration; she looked at me seriously, then fixed her gaze on 
a lamp I held; I set it away, then came and spoke to her; but she 
made no response till I bent down, then caught my face familiarly 
in her hands. By such vague behavior, she defeated efforts to 
establish certainly her discrimination of our faces until long after I 
was sure that she did know them. Late in the fourtli month, she 
noticed any change in our appearance wrought by headgear or 



1 6 Univei^sity of California. [Vol. i. 

wraps, with surprised looks at the articles, however unobtrusive in 
form and color; and on the i6oth day, though staring with the 
usual surprise at our hats, she paid no attention to that of a stran- 
ger who had come in with us. As she would answer a smile by 
laughter and movements; once laughed at a grimace (130th day); 
in the sixteenth week, when especially interested in an uncle, would 
smile when he looked at her; and {e. g., 119th day) watched our 
lips, even looking from her mother's lips to mine, when interested 
in a sound we made, — it seems certain that by the fourth month at 
least, our faces must have been clear to her. In the sixth month, 
being separated from her mother when hungry, she cried hard for 
her, watching at every turn in a corridor and every door passed 
through, and was instantly comforted at sight of her; but I had no 
dQubt she had recognized her perfectly weeks before. 

The 141st day, she seemed to recognize her grandmother 
through the window; but the day before, I was told, this slight 
obstacle had prevented recognition till her grandmother raised the 
sash and smiled at her alternately with and without its interven- 
tion; and on the 143d day she seemed to find me unfamiliar seen 
through the pane. On the 158th day she held out her arms to me 
when she was some ten feet from the closed window through which 
I looked at her; and in the eighth month, 228th day, she recog- 
nized her grandfather's head some thirty feet away, through two 
closed windows. Yet as late as the twentieth month, being in a 
company of strangers in a room not strongly lighted, she took them 
for neighbors, calling one and another by the names of persons to 
whom they bore slight resemblance. 

Once in the fifth month, 136th day, I called to her, the back of 
a willow chair being between us. She looked each side of the chair 
with growing surprise, and at last directly at the back several times, 
but without seeing me, though it was easy to see through the open 
work: either she could not recognize my face crossed by the wil- 
low rods, or did not understand carrying her look past the obstacle; 
her face was somewhat troubled as well as amazed, jaw dropped 
and brows lifted.^ 

^ Professor Joseph Le Conte reminds me that if she looked at the chair back 
she saw my face doubled. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 17 

The objects early noticed by her, other than bright surfaces or 
shining points, and faces, were (if I pass by the hghted surfaces of 
color, 25th and 37th days): 42d day, bunch of yellow flowers; 56th 
and 57th, knot of red ribbon; 62d, red and yellow strips; 68th, 
bunch of bright sachets, shadows of chandelier quivering on the 
ceiling; 80th day, she became silent when fretting, and watched 
attentively the leaves of a small notebook fluttered before her, mov- 
ing hands and feet with interest; 87th, an eyeglass dangled from a 
strino". Up to nearly three months old, therefore, she had not, so 
far as I saw, in spite of her looking about, really looked at any spe- 
cial objects that were not lighted up, colored, or in motion. On 
the 87th day, however, she twice looked seriously, but without 
appearance of curiosity, at a rattle in her hand; after this, fixing her 
eyes with attention on various objects became common. Bright or 
colored ones did not seem to keep their ascendency after the third 
or at all events the fourth month, nor moving ones whose motion 
was not followed, though they continued to attract: 105th day she 
watched the moving landscape from the car window for a half hour 
with pleasure; 130th day watched the windmill; i62d, noticed 
especially of all the sights in the city, passing cable cars, walls of 
the elevator as it rose and sank, and trees blowing outside a win- 
dow. 

I had noted especially that up to the incident of the rattle on 
the 87th day she had never looked at anything held in her hands, 
even when she showed interest in having it there; and thereafter she 
looked at such objects rarely and with slight attention, till grasp- 
ing was fully established. This process was gradually acquired 
during the whole of the fourth month; I did not see her fix an 
object with her eye and then try to reach it before the 113th day. 
There was a constant progress in co-ordination of eye and touch 
in learning this. I shall hope hereafter to give details of this under 
the subject of Grasping. I never but once saw her hold up an 
object, — her rattle, as she lay on her back in the sun, 134th day, 
— and inspect it long and carefully; nor did she ever at any time 
look with attention at her own hands, as some babies do ; not even 
when, 97th day, she was pounding her fist down hard on the table, 
did she look at it. 

As to the size of objects of which she had clear enough vision 



1 8 University of California. [Vol. i. 

to try to grasp them : the rattle, an unusually small one, was the 
smallest I have note of until the latter part of the fifth m^onth, when 
she would reach for, seize, and play with the curtain cord, and put 
the knot into her mouth; in the sixth month, 158th day, she tried 
to catch flies on the pane; i68th, tried to reach a fragment of red 
sugar on the floor, scarcely one-fourth inch in diameter, and there- 
after several times bits of paper, petals, etc., of similar size. In the 
sixth month also a few other very small objects were grasped, as a 
rubber ring, of the smallest size used for papers, and strings were 
favorites. In the latter part of the eighth month, the smallest scraps 
and shreds on the carpet, down to pin-head size, occupied her a 
good deal; once a single hair, 

I have mentioned that she followed the motion of a person in 
the second month. I did not myself see any advance in this power 
in the third, but was told that on the 84th day she watched her 
grandfather out of the room when he quitted her after a play, kept 
her eyes on him as he stood in the next room a few seconds, and 
gave a joyous crow when he turned to come back. By the fifteenth 
week, she followed moving persons constantly with her eyes, and 
thereafter my notes of it are frequent. By the nineteenth week she 
was fond of following them through long processes, as setting the 
table, without a deviation of attention. By the twenty-fourth, she 
would sometimes follow the movements of hands: e. g., she would 
watch closely the motion of forks and spoons to our lips at table. 

Meanwhile, in the fourth month, 119th day, she once followed a 
bunch of sachets with her eyes as it was swung back and forth be- 
fore her for many minutes. In the nineteenth week, 129th day, she 
once looked after a napkin ring on dropping it; but it was a solitary 
occurrence, and she did not begin to look at all intelligently after 
falling objects till the next month, the i6oth day; she could in the 
nineteenth week find her rattle if she dropped it on the tray of the 
high- chair immediately before her, but not in her lap or on the floor. 
After the i6oth day for about a week, she dropped articles on pur- 
pose to watch them, sometimes for as long as anyone would pick 
them up, or would hold her out to pick them up herself. She had 
another period of earnest and persistent experiment in this direction 
in the eis;hth month. 



Shinn.] The Development of a CJiild. 19 

The 136th day she watched steam from the kettle, without try- 
ing to follow its motion; 158th, trying to catch flies on the pane, 
looked up after them when they went too high for her; i62d, 
watched objects from the train window, and would now and then 
look back to keep her eyes on one as the train moved. 

Early in the seventh month she would follow the flight of the 
pigeons as they flew up near by; no smaller bird till the 230th day 
I was told she followed a blackbird; about the middle of the tenth 
month she began to follow the flight of small birds if her attention 
was drawn by their twittering, or if she chanced to be looking as 
they flew up: in the eleventh month, 321st day and thereafter, she 
followed the flight of large, slow butterflies. 

As to the distance at which she seemed to see things, I have 
mentioned her watching her grandfather into the next room, some 
fifteen feet away, on the 84th day; by the fifteenth week she often 
noticed us and smiled at us across the room; in the seventeenth 
(i 15th day), at her mother once in the next room, fifteen or twent}^ 
feet away. I thought in the seventeenth week that she showed a 
special interest and a sort of curiosity over faces at that distance, 
and wondered if they looked to her conspicuously smaller. 

The objects that she would watch through the window in the 
fifth month were usually within fifty feet of the window. The 1 56th 
day I was told she watched me as I stepped into a phaeton and 
until it passed out of sight behind trees, perhaps one hundred feet 
away. The same day she watched her mother go some twenty 
yards away to gather flowers. She never reached arms to seize ob- 
jects much out of her reach, — never more than say three feet away ; 
if one held arms to her from a distance, however, she would respond, 
laughing; but this, I think, was merely a gesture, without expecta- 
tion that we would take her from that distance. In the sixth month, 
she had no difficulty in recognizing our faces at upper windows. 
On the 175th day she seemed to be watching a team passing about 
one hundred feet from the window, she herself being some eight or 
ten feet from the window, in the room. Early in the ninth month, 
279th day, she noticed through a closed window a team some seventy- 
five feet away; 296th day she recognized my face at an upper win- 
dow when she was about forty feet from the house, but she also 



20 



University of California. [Vol. i. 



heard my voice. On the 292d she called for a red rose seen at a 
distance of perhaps eighty feet through trees and bushes, and kept 
her eye on it all the way as she was carried to it, jubilating as she 
saw she was to have it. 

I saw no indication in the first year that she ever looked really 
aivay, into the distance; but the day she was a year old she proved 
to know the moon, pointed out to her by someone three days earlier. 
After this she was taken to the window to see it, or outdoors when 
the weather was warm enough, every full moon until the days grew 
too long, about six months (as her birth was on October 6). In the 
fifty-fifth week, her attention was called to a star, and thereafter she 
was interested in looking for stars also, and would sometimes detect 
them very quickly and point, crying " Tar." She took great pleasure 
in looking at moon and stars, and would greet them with a shout 
of joy. 

Meanwhile, in the latter part of the thirteenth month, she began 
to recognize cows a half-mile away on the hills, not, however, from 
her knowledge of the appearance of a cow near by, but because 
they had been pointed out to her a little while before from a car 
window. 

It was late in the eighteenth month, 542d day, before she said 
anything that showed an idea that the moon could be reached; she 
then asked, "Ea'? Woo?"— "O, no, Ruth can't eat the moon." 
"Man?" — "No, men cannot eat it." "Laly?"— "No, nor ladies." 
"Owgu?" — "No, aunty cannot; it is up in the sky; it is too far to 
reach." The words, "too far," and "reach," were quite familiar 
to her before, in connection with things hung just beyond her grasp, 
and the like, but this seemed to be her first idea of great distance, 
and she was interested and curious; she stretched out her arm and 
cried, " Rea' ! Far ! " over and over. A week later she began asking 
me to get the moon. When told that we could not reach it, she de- 
sired to be shown that we could not, and wished each of us in turn 
to stretch an arm to show her how far our best efforts fell short. 
When we went into the house, and she was told to tell grandma 
what she had seen, she answered, as usual, "Moon," then added, 
"Far!" Next morning at breakfast, hearing us speak of her wish 
to get the moon, she turned in her chair, and reached her hand 
prettily toward the ceiling, looking up as if far away, and crying, 
"Far!" This she did several times. 



Shinn.] The Development of a CJiild. 2i 

Up to the fourth six months, she certainly did not distinguish at 
as great a distance as we; we are all rather far-sighted, however. 
From the seventy-second to the seventy-fifth week she repeatedly 
misnamed men or boys at perhaps twenty yards distance; the less 
familiar person being almost always called by the name of the one 
better known. Any man in farmer's clothes at that distance would 
be called by the name of her uncle; any boy of eight or ten, "Ray;" 
any child under four or five, "Harrison." As the person mistaken 
came nearer, if he was known to her, she would correct herself; if 
a stranger, she would say, "Man!" or "Boy!" or "Baby!" — always 
with an air slightly surprised and crestfallen. She once mistook a 
strange young girl at a distance for one slightly known to her; but 
never made any error about women she knew at all well, perhaps 
because their garments made them recognizable farther away, per- 
haps because she really knew them better than the men of the 
family. On the 590th day, again, seeing her uncle (a tall man) 
about a hundred feet away, she called him by the name of a half- 
grown Portuguese boy, who worked about the place and was well 
known by sight to her; there was no resemblance in face, and none 
perceptible to us in gait or bearing. As he came nearer, she be- 
came doubtful, but did not call her uncle's name positively till he 
was within fifty feet. She looked at him very intently then, and 
later in the same day recognized him at once when seen more than 
one hundred feet away. This goes to show that her mistakes were 
due not so much to defect in distant vision as to failure to observe 
and fix in mind those general aspects by which we recognize per- 
sons at a distance. In this case, a chief element of error was failure 
to estimate sise; but not in the earlier instances. I never noticed 
an error in distant recognition afterward. The 626th day, however, 
seeing her grandfather occupied some twenty-five feet away, she 
said he was "eating," though he was in fact counting money, every 
outline and motion clearly defined against a window; and she could 
not make out what he was doing till she had come close to him. 
On the 645 th day, again, I was told that she mistook a white cow 
on a distant hillside for a goat, — the estimate of size here again 
evidently at fault; and quite recently, late in the third year, she 
called horses far away on the hills pigs.^ 

^The following notes, from records kept by Mrs. Eleanor Sharpe, of San 



22 University of California. [Vol. i. 



5. Direction. 

On the 87th day I first saw her look/(?r something: she was 
much interested in a guest, a Hvely girl, and not only followed her 
movements, but would look for her when out of sight (89th day). 
92d day, just before three months old, she turned her head and 
looked with an appearance of intention in the direction of a sound 
heard a few seconds before. I had been told of her doing this 
several times in this and the preceding week, once at the snap- 
ping of the fire; but could not get her to look by any sound I could 
make, though she would show attention by her manner. Thereafter 
she would sometimes turn her head to look for the source of a 
sound, but never at all regularly. On the I22d day she leaned first 
to one side then the other, to look around the chair back with quick, 
eager turns of her head, to see her uncle playing; when I took her 
to his side, she watched his fingers eagerly, and when he began to 
sing, gazed alternately up to his face and down at his fingers, throw- 
ing her head far back to look up, and alternating her gaze about 
■every five seconds during the entire stanza. 

Her looking after objects dropped has been mentioned above. 
1 3 2d day she looked repeatedly to see what touched the back of 
her head, when she had bent it back till it touched the floor. 

Francisco, and by Mrs. Mabel Beatty (B. L., University of California), and 
kindly placed at my disposal, bear on the subjects of Fixation and Direction : — 

I. Before the child was a month old, he turned eyes and head to follow a 
lighted car down the street. 

In the third month he was interested in watching his brothers at their play. 

In the fourth month, io6th day, he did not know his nurse when she was 
dressed to go out, and was on the point of crying until she spoke to him. 

In the tenth month, when in his bath, he would try to grasp the sponge 
■or the stream of water from it, if held within reach, but never if much beyond 
reach. 

II. In the third month the child seemed to be studying faces. 

In first learning to grasp, in the 17th and i8th weeks, he did not always hit 
accurately. 

In the 23d week, he looked for a cable car in the proper direction. 

In the sixth month he began to follow the direction of a pointing finger; 
when told to look at anything, he would first look to see the pointing finger, then 
fix the object; yet as late as the eighth month he would sometimes look only at 
the finger. In the tenth month he began to point himself, indicating the direc- 
tion in which he wished to go. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Cliild. 23 

On the 133d day occurred a rather striking incident. I had 
been holding her, but gave her to her mother to put to sleep; she 
was no sooner settled in her mother's lap than she began to turn 
her head to watch me; and when her mother turned to prevent 
this, she would screw her head over her shoulder; so I rose from 
my seat to the right of her, and crossing toward the left, sat down 
concealed. She did not follow the motion, but after a few seconds 
raised her head from her mother's arm, and screwing it about, 
searched the farthest leftAxdSvdi quarter of the room, and it was some 
time before she would be contented without seeing me there. She 
seemed able to infer from the direction in which I had passed from 
her field of vision that I was to be looked for somewhere on an 
extension of that line. Yet she did not, as a rule, show a sense of 
direction nearly so good: see Interpretation, below. 

Her earliest ability to direct her look, except when it was drawn 
along by something it was following, was when guided by a con- 
tinuous sound close by; from the fifth to the seventh week, she 
had stared into the face of a person striking the piano, as if the 
sound came thence; on the 45th day, she turned once and looked 
at the keys. On the 57th day she began to watch the keys. 

In the twenty-third week she would look around her on the 
floor for playthings she had dropped. 

The 165th day I looked at her and called, over the top of a tall 
screen, and withdrew my head and reappeared several times. She 
would watch the spot in the interval, — a few seconds. She had no 
difficulty in looking directly at the place whence the voice came, 
though it was so high I had to stand on tiptoe on a chair, and no 
one had ever spoken to her thence. Three days later I tried it 
again, appearing at different spots, several feet apart, along the long 
screen. She had no trouble in looking at me at once, though she 
became a little confused as to which spot to watch for my reappear- 
ance, and if I did not appear promptly at the last one, would go 
back and watch the first. About the same date, I called to her 
from an upper window; she looked assiduously, but never high 
enough, and grew troubled and surprised; her mother tried to 
make .her follow her pointing hand, but she did not get the idea of 
following on in the direction indicated, farther than the hand.' At 
last her grandmother rustled a paper sharply, which somehow drew 
her eyes up to the window, twelve or thirteen feet above her. In 



24 University of California. [Vol. i. 

one or two other trials we found that a sufficiently sharp or strik- 
ing sound somehow enabled her to locate the source. When she 
discovered us, she apparently knew us at once, smiling and moving 
her arms. Although ordinarily so accurate in locating a voice, 
occasionally she would look at the wrong person when two were 
close together. 

I noticed in this week that her attention could be drawn in a 
given direction by motioning with the hand; but even through the 
seventh month this could be done but imperfectly, as she was apt 
to watch the hand or face, instead of looking on in the direction 
indicated. 

The 177th day (near the end of the sixth month) disturbed a 
httle while nursing, she sat up and looked around, and caught sight 
of a knot of cords on an ottoman close by, and reached for it. Her 
mother set her on it. She looked all about for it, leaning this way 
and that to look, and when taken back to be nursed kept stopping 
and looking for it at intervals. Her surprise at its disappearance 
and confusion as to its direction were very quaint. Nearly two 
weeks before I had observed that she would remember, even after 
nursing some moments, to look back to where she had noticed a 
bit of paper or the like on the floor. 

By the end of the sixth month, she would usually turn and look 
very intelligently into the face of anyone calling her. 

In the ninth month she became able to follow a pointing finger 
easily and correctly. Early in the tenth (281st day) she did it so 
well as instantly to locate a small black kitten's head thrust from 
a wood pile some fifteen or twenty feet away. 

By the middle of the second year she seemed to have a very 
clear sense of direction, judging from the precision with which she 
could go to any desired spot about the house and garden ; but I 
suspect this was largely a memory of objects that served as guides. 
In the 103d week she could not find the lounge in the dark, in a 
room perfectly familiar. 

The 623d day she was quite puzzled by a difficulty of direction. 
She had discovered the trick of looking between her legs, and, 
wishing to look at her mother in this manner, turned her face 
toward her and stooped. Surprised at seeing objects in the oppo- 
site direction, she tried it over again, with the same result, and her 
mother then helped her out. 



Shinn.^ The Development of a Child. 25 

Color. 

On the twenty-third day I tried in vain to get any attention 
from the baby to a red silk kerchief, brilliantly lighted by the sun. 
But on the 25th day, in the evening, having caught sight of my 
dark red gown, barely within her field of vision, in strong lamp- 
light, she threw her head far back to see it, with an expression of 
interest, such as she had never had before. Yet on the 37th 
day she stared as earnestly at a dark blue sack I wore, where the 
high light from a window struck my shoulder. Neither of these 
garments was of glossy material, both soft wool; yet I thought it 
probable that the high light and not the color was in both cases the 
attraction. After this her eyes dwelt a good deal, for a few daj's, 
on the red gown, even when no direct light was on it, but there was 
no demonstration of interest. Later in the same week, the sixth, 
on the 42d day, her eyes followed persistently a bunch of yellow 
chrysanthemums, and returned constantly to dwell on another 
bunch pinned on my breast. I procured a bunch of bright red gera- 
niums of similar size and form, which was followed when I persist- 
ently attracted her attention, but less readily; a bunch of pink gera- 
niums scarcely at all; but fatigue counted for something in this, 
and when I returned to the chrysanthemums, she was not as intent 
as at first. 

At the beginning of the ninth week, 57th day, she once looked 
fixedly at my red ribbon, and her mother told me that the day 
before the baby had caught sight of a red bow at her neck, stopped 
nursing to stare at it, and would not go on till it was put out of 
sight. 

The first day of the third month, 62d day, I tried to find her 
preference by suspending two long strips, one red and one yellow, 
before her, at equal distance to right and left, so that she would 
have to turn her head slightly to look at either. She gazed at 
first one and then the other with some interest, then neglected both 
for the bright button heads in the canopy to w^hich they were fas- 
tened. The next day I found her, after a long sleep and in high 
good humor, making demonstrations of pleasure over them, with 
arms moving, smiles, and murmurs, but unfortunately, someone 
had knotted them together, so she saw both at once. On the 68th 



26 University of California. [Vol. i. 

day, also, I was told of her making joyous demonstrations over i 
bunch of bright sachets hung from the canopy (not in motion . 
These were her first signs oi joy in color; but she was not in an^ 
respect as demonstrative at this stage as Preyer's child. 

During the fourth month I noted several instances of attentive 
gazing at bright-colored objects — a pink and white fan, yellow daf- 
fodils, a red shawl, e. g.; the I20th day she stared with raised brows 
and look of surprise at the flowers, which lay on the table, and 
the shawl, which lay on a chair, as if she recognized the color as 
unfamiliar in those places. From this time to about the middle 
of the sixth month, the daffodils were about the house in great 
quantities, and possibly helped to develop her perception of yellow. 
On the 1 3 2d day — early in the fifth month — I was told she stopped 
crying to look at a jar of them, and from that time I note her inva- 
riable interest in them; when she came to seize, her arms were 
always stretched out for them, and the first time she cried with the 
least persistence at denial was for them; ajar of them in the sui 
called out excited movements. She had never shown so uniforn. 
interest in any object. But with this exception, I have no notes of 
consequence of color interest during the fifth month till near the 
end; a few colored objects were noticed, but no more than uncol- 
ored ones. (It is worth observing, however, that up to the end of 
the third month colored objects attracted far more attention than 
uncolored.) Except for the daffodils, hard, bright objects were 
preferred to soft, colored ones to play with; a silver-nickel call-bell 
especially, a small steel bell, napkin rings, etc. Near the end of the 
month, 146th day, she first tried to pull off my neck ribbon, a yel- 
low one; she had not noticed the red and pink ones I had been 
wearing, and next day did not notice a red one. Yet the 141st 
day she took but little interest in a yellow Indian basket, about the 
size and color of a jar of daffodils that usually stood in the same 
place; and on the same day showed no interest in brown and yel- 
low figures on the piano cover, but tried to seize red ones on the 
table cover, while on the 147th, she reached arms for ajar of pink 
and purple hyacinths and one of daffodils with equal interest. 

Throughout the sixth month one of the most interesting objects 
to her was a colored picture of daffodils, which hung low on the 
wall. I first note her reaching for this, among other objects, on the 



Shinn. ] The Development of a Child. 27 

second day of the month (153d); and from this time to the last 
week of the month my notes record an invariable interest in it; 
she would be diverted by it even when crying. No picture at this 
time was recognized as a representation, and her liking must have 
been due either to the color, or to the fact that it was the only 
bright picture low enough on the wall for her to touch and look 
closely at. On the day that she first noticed it, she reached 
also for the yellow Indian basket; but so too for any flowers, and 
for objects not colored, — curtain cords, books, newspapers. On 
the 154th she reached for a colored linen book among all her toys, 
and spent some time dabbing at the pictures and trying to pick 
them up; and again, cared for none of her toys till a red and yellow 
celluloid ball was held to the light, — this she reached for with 
apparent excitement; three days later I note again her interest in 
the ball, but after this she ceased to care for it much. 

A few other colored objects were among those that she wished 
to have or liked to play with in the sixth month, especially a 
little bright blue bottle. We thought her more certain to grasp at 
our ribbons, and with more desire, if they were yellow, and once, 
when denied a yellow one, she remembered it with a whine for some 
seconds, but she would snatch even at white ones, and she plucked 
at my red gown (149th day). The i8ist day, just before the end 
of the sixth month, I tried to test her by dangling ribbons of various 
colors before her; but she grasped always the one that received 
the strongest light from the window; and when we put them in 
equal light, turned from one to another with equal joy. 

From the beginning of the sixth month to the end of the year, 
flowers were perhaps her favorite playthings. I took much note of 
her color preferences among them. The following were the most 
marked indications : — 

Sixth month, 156th day, regarded a patch of orange-colored 
marigolds (to which her attention was drawn) very earnestly, with 
motions of her hands toward them. When wheeled close to a 
hedge of Japanese quince, all cherry red, showed more excitement, 
leaning out with outstretched arms and babbling to it. This hedge 
continued to excite her as long as it remained in flower, — she never 
passed it without leaning out and reaching for it, or babbling to it. 
It made a very large expanse of color, however, larger than any 



28 University of California. [Vol. i. 

other she saw, which may have had as much to do with her inter- 
est as the fact that it was red. 

I72d day, showed unusual excitement and desire over some 
yellow buttercups in her mother's hat; would not be pacified with- 
out them, and when her mother had left the room to put them out 
of sight, the baby looked for them on her reappearance, and ex- 
pressed discontent on seeing them gone. 

Seventh month, 202d day, cries of pleasure at a clump of yellow 
oxalis (to which, however, her attention was called). 

Ninth month, late, decided preference appeared for the orange- 
colored marigolds. 

Tenth, preference for marigolds lasts through the month, — she 
reaches for them past scarlet geraniums. Toward the end of the 
month, however, she would beg for other orange-colored flowers, 
for golden-rod, and for red flowers, also for oleanders and pink roses, 
even pale pink. White roses she became very desirous of about the 
middle of the month; but their contrast with the dark green leaves 
made them quite conspicuous on the vine. 292d day for the first 
time she showed pleasure and desire over a blue flower, a large and 
showy African lily; but never again in the first year. 

Eleventh month, pink roses seemed at first her favorites; but 
after the middle of the month, her preferences ceased to be fixed, — " 
she would want now pink and red flowers, rejecting large yellow 
primroses, and later the same day put everything aside for the 
marigolds again. Of course other things than color enter into these 
choices, chiefly convenience of form, texture, and taste for han- 
dling and mouthing; the advantage in these respects was with the 
roses. 321st day noticed "heliotrope-colored" flowers on a gown, 
and thereafter was interested in that gown and its flowers. 

Other color indications in the second six months : — 

Seventh month, 201st day, did not notice the substitution of a 
white rubber nipple for a black one, on which she was very depend- 
ent in going to sleep. 

Ninth month, last week, did not notice especially gilt braid and 
ornaments on a yachting gown, nor brass fittings on the yacht. 

Tenth month, 269th day, tested her again with ribbons of bright, 
clear tones, and the results seemed to show preference for yellow 



Shinn.] Tlie Development of a Child. 29 

and orange, next red; blue and pink were entirely neglected/ I had 
no green ribbon. 

In the middle of the eleventh month I tried again; preference 
for orange and scarlet, but not strong preference. Of five little 
books she was fond of playing with, which were dull shades of 
cream, yellow, brown, and green, she preferred the green; green 
leaves, however, never seemed to interest her. She was habitually 
interested in large yellow butterflies at this time. On the 321st 
day, I was told, she refused to have on her white sunbonnet, insist- 
ing on her pink one. 

Late in the twelfth month, 3 5 2d day, she distinctly preferred 
two bright blue books to a bright red and a bright yellow one on 
the same shelf 

My general impression of her color liking this year, both at the 
time and afterward in analyzing my notes, was that it did not play 
a large part in her interests. The small number of notes of color 
interest, considering how closely I gleaned, is noticeable. It was 
also unaccountably variable; a surface of bright color would occa- 
sionally bring out signs of great pleasure, and at. other times was 
passed with indifference, when no condition was perceptibly altered. 
But this variability was more or less characteristic of all her inter- 
ests. 

It was also the impression of those who watched her, even more 
decidedly than the notes indicate, that yellow attracted her most, 
then orange and red, and pink, while blue and violet were scarcely 
noticed, green still less. But we were also satisfied that a bright 
surface of the cold colors was preferred to a dull one of the warm 
colors. 

During the second year, the child's color sense was mainly ob- 
servable in connection with the learning of color names. 

In the first part of the thirteenth month it was a favorite occu- 
pation to turn over the leaves of a picture book, pointing to sepa- 
rate objects in the pictures, and asking with an interrogative sound 
to have them named; in this way it chanced that she was repeat- 

^Mrs. Sharpe first tried her boy with colors in the seventh month, 219th 
day. He would drop red, blue, or green ribbons to grasp either scarlet or gray, 
but reached for the scarlet in preference to the gray every time. 



30 ■ ' University of California. [Vol. i. 

edly told, "That is the zvhite kitty," "the brown kitty." When 
asked, however, " Where is the white kitty?" she could not tell, 
though in the habit of pointing out objects in the pictures when 
asked. The word zvliite evidently added nothing to the idea of 
kitty. By the end of the month she did know which was the " white 
kitty" in the particular picture, but not which kittens were white in 
other pictures; she had simply attached "white-kitty" as a name to 
that one, easily recognized by position. Meantime, on three sepa- 
rate days in the fifty-fifth week, after having had red Jiozver 3.nd zvJiite 
flower, red string and white string carefully named to her, {string 
and flower, like kitty, being already well understood,) she several 
times selected the color called for, though she also failed several 
times in the case of the "strings" (bits of zephyr). My impression 
was hardly that she fixed the difference in name by the difference 
in color, but rather that she managed to keep distinct for a few 
seconds, in spite of changes of position, the objects each as a whole. 

On the last day of the month, the 396th, I named over to her 
the colors of my books as they stood on the shelves; this interested 
her very much, and she urged me to continue, pointing with an 
asking sound. In the fourteenth month likewise, when someone 
named to her the colors of the roses in a panel picture, she was 
pleased, and would afterward (fifty-eighth week) ask, pointing to one 
rose after another, to be told, "That is a pink rose; a yellow rose; 
a red rose; a white rose." I could not see, however, throughout the 
month, that she remembered these names at all, or knew what they 
meant. I tried her several times, giving her always the color ad- 
jective in connection with the perfectly familiar nouns, book, rose, 
ribbon; but if the distinction was caught, it was with difficulty, 
and for but a few seconds, — a marked contrast to the ease with 
which she picked up and held the names of objects. Yet on the 
416th day she put her finger on an ink spot, saying, "Dark!" — a 
word hitherto used of a dark room only; showing some ability to 
abstract the idea of a quality, a color quality at that, from one ob- 
ject and apply it to another. 

Toward the end of the fifteenth month I made a good many ef- 
forts to have her distinguish between the black, white, red, and blue 
stripes of an afghan, but in vain. Beyond these few experiments, 
and the incidental use of color words, like others, in talking with her, 
nothing was done to hasten her use of them. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 31 

Yet near the end of the sixteenth month she was suddenly- 
found in possession of " red." On the 481st day I was told that she 
had pointed to a red book, saying, "We! we!" and was not satis- 
fied till her mother asked, " Does baby mean red?" The next 
day, as she played by me on a red mahogany sofa, she put her hand 
on the wood, saying, "We!" persistently; at last I asked, "Does 
Ruth mean red?" and she assented. "Show aunty more red," I 
said, and after some hesitation, as the request was urged, she pointed 
out the red carpet, then the red table cover, without any help. 

Later in the same day I held her before a colored picture of 
flowers on the wall, and asked her, "Where is some red?" and she 
put her finger on some clear red nasturtiums. Again, after a con- 
siderable interval, I showed her red, yellow, and white ribbons, and 
told her to take the red; she did so two or three times, after slight 
hesitation. Then I placed a number of books, bright red, yellow, 
blue, and green, before her, and told her to find the red, which she 
did several times. I then took her to the picture of roses, but here 
she was confused between red and pink, and then once even pointed 
to white. 

It was strange that the mahogany, which, though quite a pure 
red, was so dark that even persons fairly versed in colors might have 
called it brown, should have been almost the first thing to which 
she applied the word; we had certainly never named any such 
shade to her as red. 

This incident proved one of the instances that I often noticed of 
a sort o{ anticipation of a power not really possessed till later. Two 
days after she was not able to point out the red book on a shelf, 
and seized yellow, green, and brown with confidence instead. I 
then dropped the experiment, and she showed no farther thought 
of naming colors for more than a month. 

On the last day of the seventeenth month (517th) hearing me 
say something of a red pencil, she began looking at two she held in 
her hand, first one and then the other, asking, "Red? red?" — 
"Which is the red one?" I asked. She offered the black one in- 
quiringly, and when I said, "That is n't red," withdrew it and offered 
the other, which was red, with confidence, crying, "Red." I now 
told her to point out the red in my gown; at first she dabbed at it 
anywhere, saying, " Red," then more carefully pointed out the red 
stripe. A disposition instantly to answer any question, right or 



3 2 University of California. [Vol. i. 

wrong, doubtless caused many of her errors, first and last. Soon 
after, she pulled a red book from a shelf, crying, " Red! " 

A week later, in the eighteenth month, I asked her, as she was 
playing with some books, "What color?" She said, "Red" (We) 
then " Le," without fixing on a book. With some trouble, we sat- 
isfied ourselves that "IS" meant yellow. She then added, "Boo," 
pointing first hesitantly to a red book, then positively to a blue one. 
She seemed so clear and triumphant about the blue, and had so 
evidently picked up two new color names without any purposed 
teaching, that I brought out a set of Prang's color tablets and let 
her take them. Told to show red, yellow, and blue, she did so 
correctly often enough to be quite striking; but unfortunately I 
kept no account, as it happened suddenly, and I was unwilling to 
lose her streak of interest by going for paper and pencil. 

Once, being told to show the blue, she chose out one after 
another all the blue and violet tablets (four, I think, including light, 
dark, and green blues), and held up one after another, saying, " Boo," 
each time; afterward she gathered them together in her own hand 
and looked at them with interest. It is to be noticed that there 
were green tablets in the pile, but she seemed to experience not the 
least difficulty in separating the blue from them. Her interest in 
the newly named color overshadowed that in red and yellow (aided 
doubtless by our pleasure), and she was disposed to say, " Boo," 
hastily for any color. 

Besides the discovery of blue, a notable step was that she un- 
derstood the question, "What color?" — at all events knew when we 
said "color" zvliat trait of the object we wished her to name. 
Hitherto we had used the converse question, "Show me the red," 
and had heard it named by her only when she volunteered it. 

Three days later I tried her again with the tablets (I had tried 
her once in the interval, but have only note of "fairly correct an- 
swers"); and as I held up red, blue, and yellow, she called each cor- 
rectly; then, getting a little excited, gave wild answers, confusing 
red and blue, — the beginning, as it proved, of a thorough confusion. 

I did not try the tablets again within the eighteenth month; but 
on the 536th day, reaching for books, she asked for a blue one as 
"red." Told that it was not red, she tried "yellow," then "blue;'^ 



Shinn.] The Development of a CJiild. 33 

then, apparently to be sure of being right this time, called one blue 
that was in fact red. A couple of hours afterward she pointed to a 
blue umbrella, calling it red; and when told that it was blue, turned 
to my red neck ribbon and asserted that it was blue, as also the red 
lacing cord of my blouse; both were bright red, nearly pure. 

From the end of the fourteenth month she had used the word 
black, confusing it more or less with dirty, perhaps because she often 
saw hands soiled with taking up coal, or soiled her own on the coal 
hod; she had first picked up the word in hearing it said of ink spots. 
She now, in the eighteenth month, nearly dropped its use to mean 
dirty, and in the seventy-sixth week would point out the black 
stripes on the afghan, saying, "Ba!" 533d day, asked, "What color 
are your stockings?" would answer, " Black." The recognition of 
blackness (including any dark gray, soiled aspect) as a quality was 
really earlier and more spontaneous than that of color proper. 

As to her color preferences during the six months, red seemed 
at first favored. In the thirteenth month, 375th day, she discovered 
and watched with interest a dull red sunset; 377th, took marked in- 
terest in my yellow ribbon, and chose her buff sunbonnet rather 
than her pink; but 382d, and for some days, was very desirous of 
an aunt's scarlet knitting. In the fourteenth month, 416th day, 
playing on a pile of fresh cobs, she carefully picked out the red 
ones; and on the 426th day she distinctly preferred red books on 
my shelves. Again, in the fifteenth month, 444th day, she chose 
out the red books; on the 450th, seeing her pink dress under a pile 
of others, white and dark blue, she drew it out and asked by mo- 
tions to have it put on, and clung to it for some time. 

The next quarter, however, outside of the interest in naming r^d 
and blue, yellow seemed the favorite. During the seventeenth 
month she was eagerly interested in daffodils, as she had been the 
year before; in the eighteenth, yellow oxalis was the flower con- 
stantly sought, though in this case I thought the long, flexible 
stems, which she enjoyed pulling and handling, the chief attraction. 
Orange-colored eschscholtzias and yellow mustards were next favor- 
ites after the oxalis; but she did not care for marigolds, nearly the 
same color as the poppies. At times, for some days in both seven- 
teenth and eighteenth months, her chief desire outdoors was to run 



34 University of California. [Vol. i. 

to a mallow bush and pick off the white and scarlet seed vessels; 
she did not care much for them when picked, and when her hands 
were full would drop them and seek more. Roses always pleased 
her, and in the latter part of the month, lilacs; once I saw her inter- 
ested in some red-purple ixias and red and yellow dwarf fuchsias. 
The first time a blue flower was noticed in the second year was the 
518th day, when she ran up to a periwinkle, crying, "Baby, fowa!" 
(a flower for baby); she did not care to pick it, however, nor pay 
any farther attention to periwinkles. The 5 36th day, she was much 
pleased with a blue-purple grass-flower. 

Late in the eighteenth month I saw several instances of compar- 
ison or association through color. On the 536th day, seeing a 
large piece of red cloth, she cried insistently, "Laly! " (lady); the 
only explanation was that a lady in a red dress had been at the 
house a month before. Next day, looking at a flower catalogue, 
she called a narcissus a rose. "But this is -a. yellow flower," I said 
idly, not expecting her to understand; but she cried, "Da!" (Then it 
is a daffodil). Yet the daffodils had been gone for two weeks. The 
length of the memory is more surprising in the first instance, but 
the second is more curious in the zvord's being the medium of mem- 
ory; for the resemblance of the narcissus in the picture to the daf- 
fodils was not close. A third instance was on the 544th day, when 
she recognized as a lemon one that by freak was shaped like an 
orange; it must have been by the paler color that she knew them 
apart. 

In the nineteenth month came a distinct ability to name col- 
ors, and with it a great increase in her interest in color; she often 
spoke of it, and tried to name the colors she saw. For example, on 
the 5 5 2d day she pulled a piece of blue silk out of a box, and said 
hesitantly, "Red," then decidedly, "Blue;" then pulled out a red 
bit and named it correctly. Later, chancing to look up to where a 
red flag was tucked in the rafters (she was in the garret), she cried, 
"Red!" 

Several times on this day and the next, pointing to white roses, 
she cried, "Rose! white!" (wo-wo! fwi, or fa!) Questioned, "What 
color is the rose?" she became confused; but when showed that it 



Shinn.] 



Tlie Development of a Child. 



35 



was like her mother's apron, she soon pointed to it and cried, 
" White ! " No one had ever taught her zvhite since our futile efforts 
three months before to see if she could distinguish the "white rose," 
or "white kitten," but she had heard it used in talk. 

On the 557th day she set herself to name over the colors of my 
books as she pulled them from the shelf and piled them on the bed 
— red, white, blue. I again had no pencil at hand, but kept rapid 
count with my fingers, and she did not make more than four mis- 
takes out of fifteen names. She even pointed out on parti-colored 
books the red and white. This voluntary exercise with the books 
was repeated from time to time for months. 

The progress of my niece's color knowledge thus far differed so 
strikingly from that of Preyer's child, and she had so evidently 
passed the stage at which regular tests were begun with him, that I 
determined to apply these, and an hour or so later tried her with 
three tablets. The results were not nearly as good as in her spon- 
taneous exercises; but as the correct answers were almost always 
given with attention and decision, the incorrect ones either inquir- 
ingly or hastily and carelessly, the figures understate her real recog- 
nition. 

To the question, "Where is the red? the blue? the yellow?" she 
answered: — 



- 


Eight. 


Wrong. 


Red 

Yellow 


2 
2 
3 





Blue 


3 





To the question, "What color is this?" 



- 


Right. 


Wrong. 


Red 


6 






Yellow 

Blue 


3 
4 





Two days later, naming the colors of books, and choosing white 



36 



University of California. 



[Vol. I. 



and red especially, she made no mistakes. Yet with the tablets, to 
the question, "Where is the red?" etc.: — 




Red 

Yellow 
Blue.... 



To the question, "What color?" — 



- 


Right. 


Wrong. 


Red 

Yellow 

Blue 


o 

2 

I 


3 
o 

2 



The test that required her to name the color thus far proved the 
more difficult one, yet M^hen she named colors spontaneously the 
demand on her memory of words was the same. 

These two tests were during the eightieth week. I purposed 
hereafter to give her a test once a week. But after the eighty-first 
week she began to coax for them, and so had them oftener. The 
first time, on her mother's suggestion of "the colors," she came to 
me coaxing, " Red!" Yet red was at the time least cared for, and 
she often refused to answer regarding it. The second time she came 
without suggestion, and begged, "Blue-green! blue-green ! " Next 
morning, the moment I entered the breakfast room, she cried, "Red- 
green! Upstairs! Find!" and recurred to it all breakfast time 
(574th day). Next day again, hearing something said of "lips getting 
blue," she broke in, crying, "Get blue! get blue!" and had to be 
persuaded to finish her lunch. Next day she began to ask for them 
as "red green-too" {i. e., red and green); 58istday, suddenly, in the 
midst of quietly eating her potato, broke out with a demand for 
"Red green-too!" By the end of the twentieth month the usual 



Shinn.] The Development of a Cliild. 37 

form of asking was for " red and green," sometimes with the addi- 
tion of " — and blue too." No other colors were ever mentioned, ex- 
cept that once in the twenty-first month (61 8th day) she begged, 
"Ruth have pink and blue," over and over; finally "pink and blue 
— and green." Yet at that time pink had never been included among 
her tablets. During the twenty-first month she was becoming more 
interested in their forms than in their colors, and began to ask for 
them under the names of these. On the 637th day: "Ruth see red 
and green?" — "Not now, dear; Ruth must go to bed." — "Ruth see 
red and green by and by?" — " Yes." — "And blue? " — "Yes." — 
"And triangle?" — "Yes." — "And round?" The next day, after 
she had treated them roughly, and they had been put away: " Have 
color? Play pretty!" a frequent (though rather valueless) promise 
under such circumstances, notable in this case as the first instance 
I have of the general word color, — "c6." 

The pleasure taken from the first in the exercises was increased 
when, at the end of the eighty-second week, I put the tablets into a 
little box, and allowed her to take out one at a time, naming it. 
The first time that I did this (575th day), she thus named them over 
and over for twenty minutes without fatigue. During the whole 
time the tests were carried on, I never (except on two or three oc- 
casions, when I was showing the procedure to others) continued 
them after her interest flagged. After the close of the nineteenth 
month she begged daily for them, often several times a day, but 
sometimes cared little for them when she got them, slapping them 
about roughly, or putting them into her mouth. Yet she would 
whimper and beg for them if they were put away. If they were 
restored, however, after she had once showed fatigue thus, it never 
proved possible to renew any real interest in them. After the 
.eighty-sixth week it was my custom to let her have them, one after 
another, upon naming correctly ; she thus had, after every lesson, 
the privilege of playing freely with them, and it was sometimes half 
an hour before she tired of them. She was also occasionally in the 
twenty-first month given the whole boxful to play with at will, ex- 
cept that they were withdrawn as soon as she began to play roughly. 
I watched her play in vain, for the most part, for significant results 
as to color. Such results as did appear related chiefly to form. 

In the eighty-first week, green was added. She was told the 



38 



University of California. 



[Vol. 



name when first shown the tablet, and never needed to be told again. 
The result of four tests, eighty-first and eighty-second week, was: — 



- 


Right. 


Wrong. 


Question. 


Red 


4 
4 
7 
9 


5 







Blue 


"Where is red?" etc. 


Green 




Red 

Yellow 

Blue 


I (I) 
19 

i8{i) 

20 


II 

I 




"What color is this?" 
and volunteered 




answers. 






Red 


7 

27 

31 

2n 


17 
I 

I 
I 


In all. 1 


Blue 













In all these tests, when she has given an answer wrong, and at 
once, without suggestion, corrected it, I have noted it as right, but 
indicated it by parentheses. When, on the other hand, she has cor- 
rected her answer after being asked a second time, I have set it 
down wrong, though it was often heedlessly made in the first place 
and readily corrected; the one error noted above as to yellow was 
of this sort. 

It is to be noted especially that not the least confusion between 
green and blue appeared, now or hereafter. Once, 573d day, having 
pulled down my books, which I had arranged by color for her ben- 
efit, she wished to put them back herself, and put a green book be- 
tween blue ones. "O no," I said, "put the green book w^ith the 
other green ones!" and altered its place. After that she three or 
four times, carefully and after consideration, placed green and blue 
books in the proper group. 

The disposition to interchange the names red and blue, on the 



^ One test is included here in which I failed to keep separate record for the 
two forms of question, and the figures therefore do not agree as totals with 
those in the tables above. 



SiiiNN ] The Development of a Child. 39 

other hand, increased; and practically all the errors in red and blue 
recorded in the whole period of the tests, were of this nature. Blue 
was not so much affected by it as red, especially if she saw it before 
the red. On the other hand, I noticed in the eighty -third week that 
red was answered right without hesitation at first; then as soon as 
blue had been named she became confused between them. The 
confusion seemed to occur in the effort to remember; when she 
called the name without thought, on sight of the color, she had no 
trouble, but as soon as she began to think about it, she would 
remember the word blue, and lose confidence. It corroborates 
this view that when she named the colors of objects about her, which 
was generally done on impulse without the least thought, she was 
rarely wrong. The 562d day, e. g., she was greatly interested in a 
red jacket I wore, crying, " Red ! red ! " as soon as she saw it, and dur- 
ing the day from time to time, pointed all over it, sleeves, breast, col- 
lar, saying, " Red ! " So red and blue books, ribbons, handkerchiefs. 
Yet she did sometimes interchange the words in voluntary comments 
on color. The first time she saw my books arranged by color she 
sought the blue group at once, calling it red; the 590th day a red 
ribbon was at first called blue; the 598th, she asked if the red trim- 
mings of a railway car were blue; and the 612th day asked me ear- 
nestly and repeatedly for a "blue pencil," not even perceiving her 
mistake when I looked about in vain for such a thing before it 
occurred to me that she meant red. 

It seems to me unquestionable that the difficulty was purel)^ a 
confusion of names. Besides the evidence of incidents already 
given, the following could hardly have been possible if any confu- 
sion of vision existed: On the 573d day, on having the blue tablet 
shown her, she unhesitatingly called it blue, then instantly pointed 
to a bookcase where a large bright blue volume was conspicuous, 
and cried, "Blue!" I then laid a red book before her, and made her 
understand that I v/ished her to lay on it a tablet like it; and she 
did so, selecting the right red, though she had two different red 
tablets. 

The difficulty in naming red seemed to annoy her, and give her 
a distaste for the color in the tests, which did not perceptibly affect 
her liking for it under other circumstances. In the eighty-first 
week, asked, "What is this?" of red, she would give no answer, 



40 



University of California. 



[Vol. I. 



but instead point to and name the yellow or green. Once when 
red was pressed, she decisively picked up the tablets and handed 
to me, saying, "Way!" (Put away), and when I had several times 
ignored this request, she took them all, carried them over to the 
mantel, stood on tiptoe, and tried to put them up, saying, "Way!" 

The discrepancies in the nnniber of answers given for the differ- 
ent colors are due in part to such preferences and dislikes; but as 
there were two red, two blue, and two green tablets in the set I 
used at this time, and but one yellow, the degree in which yellow 
was sought was greater up to the eighty-sixth week than the fig- 
ures show. The light and dark green, light and dark blue, were 
recognized with equal ease, but the two reds were not so easily 
seen to be the same color, and about the end of the month I laid 
aside the light red for a time. 

The total result of tests for the three weeks of the nineteenth 
month during which they were carried on, was: — 



- 


Right 


Wrong. 


Question. 


Red 

Yellow. . 


9 

lO 

i8 
15 


5 

2" 

3 





Blue 

Green 


" Where is," e'.c. 


Red 

Yellow 

Blue 


10 
20 

27 
28 


18 

4 

10 




" What color ? " and 
volunteer. 


Green 


Red 

Yellow 

Blue 

Green 


20 

34 
50 
51 


24 
6 

14 
I 


In all.i 







Meantime the child asked almost daily about the colors whose 
names she did not yet know. She would point to pink, olive, ecru, 
purple, asking, "Blue?" "Red?" "White?"— not, I think, that she 
supposed the colors were these, but that she knew no other way to 
put the question, as she had not yet the word "color" for her own 
use. We avoided answering concerning mixed or doubtful colors, 

^ See note, page 38. 



Shinn.] 



Tlie Development of a Child. 



41 



but it was impossible to keep her from widening very much her 
knowledge of each color beyond the typical ones in her tablets. 
Once on the 574th day, perhaps recalling something I had told her 
some days before of a baby whose hair was red, she put her hand 
on my hair, and suggested, " Red?" and was rather disposed to 
insist till I told her it was brown, which she accepted. She asked 
the same question about her own and her mother's, which are 
like mine, brown with no red tinge. This was like the usual for- 
mula for asking a new color name, but I was unable to resist the 
impression in this case that she was struggling wath some chaotic 
association or inference: "Hair, it seems, is a red object; this, then, 
must be red, in spite of appearances." 

The ^626. day I kept count of one of her voluntary exercises 
with the books, and found that she named them right (black, white, 
green, yellow, red) twenty-four times out of thirty. 

The 566th day, seeing a lamp extinguished, she cried eagerly, 
"White lamp! white lamp!" pointing to the porcelain shade, from 
which the reddish glow was now gone. Her interest in this change 
of color was the more striking as the lamp had been put out by 
the breaking of the chimney, amid a good deal of commotion, 
which she regarded with entire indifference. So repeatedly, 
"White roses!" White seemed especially to interest her at this 
time (eighty-first week). 

Three tests in the eighty-third week gave:^ — - 



- 


Right. 


Wrong. 


Question. 


Red 

Yellow 

Blue 


5 
5 
6 

5 


2 





" Where is," etc. 


Green 




Red 


3 

ID 

14(2) 

12(1) 


6 


4 



"What color? " and 


Blue 


volunteer. 


Green 






Red 

Yellow 


8 

22 

i3 


8 


4 



In all. 


Blue , 

Green 





42 



University of California. 



[Vol. I. 



This week she called dark green or dark blue books black, 
especially by lamplight She showed some odd confusions in the 
very colors she was sure of in the tablet tests. The 577th day 
she called a white book yellow, and the next day called yellow roses 
red, and told, "O no!" tried "blue." The 562d day she called a 
white book green, and told, "No," tried "yellow." 

She now began to try herself to put "off" colors under the cat- 
egories she knew, and on the 582d day called an olive book green, 
and a red-brown one brown. The ability to discern the real color 
in the olive shade was surprising; and I was unable to tell how she 
learned to name the brown, for though she knew brown sugar and 
brown bread very well, and had had brown hair named to her, nei- 
ther of these browns resembled the color of the book at all nearly. 
She may have had a wide general idea of brown, or she may have 
been told this particular shade among her questionings. 

Black and white w^ere now added to the tablets. Two tests in 
the eighty-fourth week gave: — 





Right. 


Wrong. 


Question. 


Red 


3(2) 

4 

8 

8 

3 

3 


I 









Yellow 

Blue 


"Where is the," etc. 


Green 

Black 

White 


Red 

Yellow 


4(8) 
II 

21(7) 

26 
6 
2 





I 

I 


2 




Blue 

Green 


"What color?" and 
volunteer. 


Black 


White 









And the total result of three in the eighty-fourth and eighty- 
fifth weeks was: — 



Red 

Yellow 
Blue.... 



Right. 


Wrong. 


19 


4 


19 





45 


I 



Green 
Black 
White 




Shinn.] TJie Devclopme7it of a CJiild. 43 

In the eighty-fourth week red suddenly recovered from the con- 
fusion with blue, but for the one week only. It is evident from the 
results of that week, as well as from all the former results with 
colors other than red and blue, that apart from the special difficulty 
in naming those two colors, it made no particular difference in 
which form the question was put; her habit of voluntarily attach- 
ing names to colors about her made it as easy as to find colors to 
fit the names. After the eighty-fourth week, therefore, I ceased to 
keep separate record; the usual form, however, was, " What color?" 
and in very many cases the colors were spontaneously named. 

The one case in which I ever heard blue called green occurred 
in the eighty-fourth week, and was evidently mere heedlessness. 
White in the same week was twice called yellow. In the eighty- 
fifth week, 590th day, she called pink roses white; I thought this 
might be due to ignorance of the word pink, but later occurred in- 
stances of real confusion of white and pink. 

She had fits of pointing to and naming all the colors about her. 
On the 590th day, e. g., she asked (correctly) for a "red book," and 
carried it about, commenting, "Red book! red book!" — then 
pointed to the walnut banisters, observing, "Brown!" then to a "red 
pail," then ran into an adjoining room and showed me "blue birdies" 
on a Japanese wall decoration. 

In the eighty-sixth week, orange was added. She had not 
heard this color name used incidentally, as she had black, brown, 
etc., but it delighted her very much, and never had to be named 
but once. It was given to her at the same time (598th day) that 
she received a present of a large number of new tablets, in various 
geometrical forms; and the first time that she had them in her 
hands, she sat for one hour in her mother's lap by a table, happily 
occupied in gathering out over and over all the orange and yellow 
tablets (some twenty in all), although she was tired, and kept awake 
far beyond her bedtime. Two days later they were put into her 
hands again, and she occupied herself again in the same way. If 
told to pick out the yellow ones she did not care to do so, but if 
left unnoticed gathered up every orange and yellow one, over and 
over, with absorbed interest. Yet an hour later, given them to oc- 
cupy her at a meeting, she did not care much for them. Until her 
interest was freshly stimulated by the addition of orange, she had 
not cared as much for the tests as in the nineteenth month. 



44 



University of California. 



[Vol. I. 



The results of nine tests in the eighty-sixth and eighty-seventh 
weeks follow. One of these was made before a roomful of people, 
after bedtime and by electric light; yet only the usual error as ta 
red and blue occurred. Three other tests were made in the eighty- 
sixth week, of which I did not keep record, beyond the note that 
the only error was this usual one, which she always corrected as 
soon as her attention was called to it. With the beginning of the 
eighty- seventh week red was withdrawn to give her an opportunity 
to recover from what was becoming a fixed habit of confusion; so 
that in five of the nine tests it does not have any part. 



Red.... 

Yellow 
Blue.... 
Green . 



R:ght. 


Wrong. 


3 


16 


96 


I 


99 


I 


104 


2 



Black . 
White.. 
Orange 




Wrong. 



White was once called yellow again. The 6iOth day she called 
a piece of dingy white paper yellow. A roll of terra cotta wall pa- 
per was called, very doubtfully, orange. It was in fact a mixed and 
imperfect orange shade; but few grown people would have classified 
it as correctly. 

In the course of a trip made on the 597th and 598th days, she 
was alert to see colors. As I stood by with her in my arms while 
her mother was shopping, she began pointing out the stockings on 
a counter, and naming over the colors, — "Green stockings! Red 
stockings!" blue, white, pink, black, brown, — with scarcely a slip- 
I did not know before that she could name pink, but concluded 
that she had picked it up from hearing her pink dress and bonnet 
spoken of Having reason to think she knew a striped dress, I 
said, "Find some striped stockings." She looked all about, repeat- 
ing, "Find striped stockings! No striped stockings!" though she 
was looking at some; after some seconds it came to her, and she 
pointed to them, crying joyously, "Striped stockings!" and then 
pointed out several other pair. She then looked about the store, 
and pointed out near and far "blue shirt!" "red box!" "green box!" 
shouting her discoveries aloud, till all the departments looked and 
smiled, and I carried her close to the boxes to moderate her 



Shinn.] 



TJie Development of a Child. 



45 



tones; she then named over quietly to me the colors of all the 
boxes in a row, and then asked for " more box." Soon after, taken 
into a strange parlor, her first act was to run to a small statue that 
stood on the floor, crying, " White man ! " and embrace it. She had 
never seen a statue before. Some hours later, after a railroad trip, 
she was taken to a strange bedroom, and though fretful and ab- 
sorbed in desire to go outdoors, the instant she entered the room, 
she ran across it to look at and name the silk balls hanging from the 
toilet stand, — "blue," "yellow;" then was puzzled by a brownish 
violet, and asked what it was. In the library she went as usual to 
the book shelves, naming the colors of the books, though she would 
not do this when strangers came in. Next day going home she 
asked about the color of the finishings in the railway car. 

Nearly two weeks later I was talking to her of this trip, and 
mentioned our taking the street cars; she broke in with, ''Green 
car ! " Her attention had in fact at the time been drawn to the colors 
of the cars. A more striking instance of color memory occurred on 
the 6ooth day; seeing for the first time a yellow primrose in bloom 
by the edge of the daffodil bed, she called it at first glance a daffodil ; 
yet she had seen no daffodil there or elsewhere for nearly twelve 
weeks. 

The 6oist day I tried whether she could hold the color idea in 
combination with another demand, as the Variety of form just intro- 
duced into her tablets seemed to have caused not the slightest con- 
fusion; she proved able to select a "square green," "oblong yel- 
low," "round black," tablet, and the like, with visible effort, and 
with some helping till she understood what was wanted, but in the 
main correctly. 

Having been shown the difference in color of ripe and unripe 
loquats, she proved able to use it quite carefully as a means of dis- 
crimination, selecting the yellow and rejecting the green. 
All the tests in the twentieth month give : — 



Red. .. 
Yellow 
Blue ... 
Green . 



Right. 



25 
121 



Wrong. 



24 
I 
7 
4 



Black.. 
White.. 
Orange 



Right. 



Wrong. 



60 

54 



46 



University of California. 



[Vol. I. 



Violet was introduced in the middle of the eighty-eighth week. 
The child seemed to care little for it, and several times refused to 
name it, and wished the colors put away when we came to it. She 
was apt to call it blue, but distinguished instantly when she saw 
them side by side. Seen in the shadow it was once or twice called 
black. Shadow did not confuse her as to yellow, blue, and green, 
which once fell behind the lounge, and were promptly named by 
her as she looked down; yet once in the ninetieth week a yellow 
tablet behind the lounge was called orange at first glance. 

Five tests in the eighty-eighth and eighty-ninth weeks gave: — 



Right. 



Wrong. 



Right. 



Wrong. 



Yellow 
Blue.... 
Green . 
Black . 



46 
63 
55 
29 



White.. 
Orange. 
Violet.. 



36 
50 

31 



I made one effort to reintroduce red, but the old mistake was 
made, and I put it away again. 

The 624th day, playing with some little girls (an unusual thing) 
and in a new place, she answered questions as to the colors of flow- 
ers wildly, calling orange ones violet, pink ones orange, yet she an- 
swered other questions as difficult correctly. 

In the ninetieth week, pink was added. Although she had used 
this name of her own notion in naming objects, she could not name 
the tablet till told, and afterward asked for the word once or twice; 
she never misnamed it, however, and could always select it. She 
was interested in it, and sought the pink ones, once gathering them 
all out, but did not care as much for it as for orange on its first in- 
troduction. 

Red was then restored, and on the first trial but one mistake was 
made; on the second, she twice began to call it blue, then instantly 
caught herself up and corrected it. Once also she called blue red, 
hastily corrected to blue, then pointed to red, saying emphatically, 
" That red." Once or twice she picked up a red one of her own 
accord, saying, "That red!' My gown she instantly recognized as 
red. 

In the ninety-first week, brown (burnt umber) was added. With 



Shinn.] 



Tlic Development of a Child. 



47 



this, as with the pink, in spite of having seemed to know the word, 
she had to be told what the tablet was; and two days after had 
forgotten the name, though she would not miscall it, and answered 
readily when I resorted to the question, "Where is the brown?" 
She did not care much for it, and on one occasion when we came 
to it lost her interest in the lesson, refused to try to name it, and 
began turning over and naming those already earned and in her lap: 
"That one pink; that one blue;" etc. 

In the following results from seven tests, in the ninetieth and 
ninety-first weeks, red enters into five, brown into three. 



- 


Right. 


Wrong. 


- 


Right. 


Wrong. 


- 


Right. 


Wrong. 


Red 


25(2) 
30 

30(1) 
41 


3 


3 


Black 

White 

Orange.... 


13 
j8 
28 




3 

I 


Violet .... 
Pink 


27 
28 

5 


I 


Yellow 




Blue 


Brown 


I 


Green 





In one of these tests, 633d day, after once or twice naming white 
correctly, she began persistently calling it pink, and did not seem 
able to correct herself; this did not seem a whim, but a real confu- 
sion. Even when the question was changed to, "Where is the 
white?" she at first pointed to the pink, then to the white, then 
became much disinclined to go on. 

The one mistake made in orange, — the only one ever made, — 
was when, after she had gathered up all the pink tablets, she looked 
for more, picked up an orange one, and said that it was pink. This 
would have been quite natural had the pink used been salmon, 
which is an orange tint; but it was nearer rose. 

The 630th day she was playing with some samples of paper of 
various "off" colors, and her mother, for curiosity, asked her to 
name them. She not only named difficult greens and blues, but 
called lilac "violet," — this several times consistently. There were 
two tints, one very light, almost lavender, which her mother said 
she had before called pink; a week later she called a gown of the 
red violet shade called heliotrope, "violet." A vermilion she called 
orange ; salmon also she called orange. A tone between green and 
yellow she called yellow; we regarded it as green (perhaps wrongly) 



48 



University of California. 



[Vol. 1. 



and told her, " No." She then, without suggestion, found the yel- 
low tablet and compared them, then said the paper was green. 

This same day, on a street corner, I told her we must wait for a 
bine car. She recognized the right car as soon as it appeared, 
pointing and shouting, "Blue car!" 

In the twenty-first month (including one test in the ninety-sec- 
ond week), the results were: — 



- 


Right. 


Wrong 


- 


Right. 


Wrong. 


- 


Right. 


Wrong. 


Red 


;8 
82 

lOI 

103 


4 


I 
3 


Black .. 


46 
61 
86 


I 

5 
I 


Violet 

Pink 


60 

30 
7 


10 


Yellow 


White 

Orange 





Blue 

Green 


Brown 


I 



In the twenty-second month she was away from home for a 
couple of weeks, and for eighteen days had no trial with the colors. 
I visited her when she had been away three days, and her first 
remark after greeting was, " Red and green?" but when told the 
colors were left at home, thought no more about them. On her 
return, after having been at home some hours, interested in other 
recognitions, she suddenly ran to the closet, crying out for 
"oblongs" (657th day). The forms interested her for about three- 
quarters of an hour; but finally she put her finger on an orange 
tablet, and said more than once, " That one red." "Why, no, it is 
orange," I said. She looked at it doubtfully, and finally said, 
"Orange color." This was by lamplight, however; and when I 
tried next morning she proved to know the whole ten, perhaps not 
as instantly as before the interval. 

She was not so easy to hold to the lesson now, having had 
the tablets to play with freely so much, and perhaps also having 
more will of her own as she grew older; on this day she was 
vexed at my holding them away from her till she had named them, 
and said repeatedly, "Hold down! let Ruth have!" Her interest, 
too, had gone away to the forms. It was indeed unnecessary to 
press color tests any farther, and I dropped them. She would 
sometimes, however, as she handled the tablets, mention their colors. 
I took one memorandum of such an occasion, and one formal test 



Shinn. ] 



The Development of a Cliild. 



49 



after her return; no error whatever was made, and no hesitation or 
disposition to error shown. Pink was five times named, brown four, 
black and white each twice, the other colors each three times. She 
now first showed interest in brown, naming it as she played oftener 
than the others, and once searching for it, — "Where brown? — 
There!" 

The colors were called, we (red), le (yellow), boo, gee, d cb 
(orange color), biby (violet), pa or p'lh (pink), bow (brown), bd (black) 
fa (white). 

Though I consider the regular tests as ending, and her familiar- 
ity with the colors complete, at twenty-one months, in making a 
table of the total results of the tests, I add in the fragmentary results 
from the twenty-second month, as the number of tests for the last 
color introduced, brown, is so small. But for this one small addi- 
tion, the period covered is exactly the third quarter of the year. 





— 


JUDGMENTS. 1 


PER CENT. 




Right. Wrong. 


Right. 


^^■rong. 


I. 


Pink 


35 





100 





2. 


Orange 


170 


I 


994 


.6 


3- 


Black 


108 


I 


99.1 


.9 


4- 


Green 


3it 


8 


97-5 


2-5 


5- 


Yellow 


240 


7 


97.2 


2.8 


6 


Blue 


309 
11 


22 


934 
91.7 


6 6 


7. 


Brown 


I 


8-3 


8. 


White 


117 


II 


91.4 


8.6 


9- 


Violet 


63 


10 


86.3 


13-7 


lO. 


Red 

Total 


76 


52 


594 


40.6 




1,440 


113 


92.7 


7-3 



This table is somewhat misleading as showing the comparative 
standing of colors. The single error in brown counts out of its due 
proportion in so small a number. Orange and pink were added to 
the list at a late period, when her power of remembering names, and 
probably of distinguishing colors, was much advanced. Had she 



^ One test in the ninetieth week, in which over forty answers were given, 
without error, has been omitted, because my note fails to show the exact num- 
ber of answers for each color. The most important difference its inclusion 
would make would be as to violet, whose percentage of right answers would 
become 87.6. 



50 University cf California. [Vol. i. 

not fallen, when but eighteen months old, into the name confusion 
about red and blue, these colors would have been recorded with 
scarcely an error. Apart from the difficulty between red and blue, 
the only consistent errors were mistaking violet for blue, and white 
for yellow or pink. Violet and white, therefore, properly occupy 
the lowest place, as regards distinctness of seeing. 

Our impression throughout was that she liked yeWow best, though 
the only distinct evidence was that in her joy in the new and pleas- 
ing orange tablets, she included with them the familiar yellow; and 
such indications as were given by her manner in hailing the tablets 
with joy or indifference as they emerged from the box, were some- 
what in favor of yellow. 

I have tabulated my experiments with reference to comparison 
with Preyer's. The first impression on comparing is of a surprising 
superiority in color perception on the part of my niece. Some cor- 
rections to this idea must be mentioned, (i) Professor Preyer 
marked all answers as wrong that were first given wrong, even if the 
child corrected them himself, while I mark such answer right if it 
was corrected without suggestion. If I had conformed to Preyer's 
method on this point, my niece's percentage of correct answers would 
fall to 91. (2) My withdrawal of red lest the confusion concerning 
it should become infixed, removed for some weeks the chief source 
of error; while Preyer at one time withdrew for two weeks the two 
best known colors. I have estimated (on the basis of the percent- 
ages of correct answers as to the colors in question, and the propor- 
tionate 7iuniber of answers usually given for them) that had there 
been no colors withdrawn, my niece's percentage of correct answers 
would have fallen to 90 per cent, or, combining with (i), to 88.7; 
while that of Preyer's child would have risen to 71.2. But the ad- 
vantage given to my niece by being allowed time to recover from 
confusion and to fix the name of blue firmly before having that of 
red again before her attention, cannnot be estimated in figures. (3) 
After the eighty-fifth week, I used only colors of medium bright- 
ness, and even before that no very pale tints or dark shades. The 
child's incidental experiences with tints and mixed tones show that 
she could distinguish them, but still they might materially have in- 
creased the proportion of error. Again, my list included white in- 
stead of gray, which may have saved some errors. Soon after the 



s«iNN.] TJie Development of a Child. 51 

suspension of the tests, however, having heard us speak of a paper 
sample she was playing with as gray, she took up the name, and 
thereafter named the color easily and without any error that we ever 
observed. (4) Probably most important of all, new colors were 
more rapidly added in Preyer's tests, thus increasing the difficulty 
of keeping the names clear. 

My niece was undoubtedly much in advance in point of time, 
having before she was two years old as complete a knowledge of 
color as Preyer's child at three; and in the rapidity and spontaneity 
with which she acquired that knowledge. I credit the earlier devel- 
opment simply to her earlier acquisition of speech in general ; and 
while evidence is wanting, I am disposed to think that almost any 
child in the second year would show an equal comprehension of 
color if his language was sufficiently advanced to test it. Indeed, 
where the power of speech permits, it is not unlikely that tests 
would be better followed in the second year than the third, because 
the child's independence is less, — he is more amenable to sugges- 
tion, and has fewer interests of his own to divert him from one sup- 
plied by the parent.' My niece may have received stimulus toward 



1 On this point compare the notes kindly suppHed me from the record of Mrs. 
Lulu M. Chapman (A. B , University of CaHfornia):— 

•'Before the child was two years old, no attempt had been made to teach 
him color, and he showed no liking for it, as in colored pictures. 

"At two years and seven days he was shown the colored tablets,— wanted 
to take all, and showed no preference. Two other experiments in the next ten 
days gave the same result. 

"One hundred and eighth week, being unable to interest the child in the 
color, I gave up the tablets, and began to speak of the color of common objects, 
'Let 's put on your blue dress,' etc. He began to use the names of colors im- 
mediately, but as a mere wanton use of words, delighting in using new ones, 
without any reference to the real colors of objects: e.g., he often remarked, 
'Seeg-rin horse,' and the like. 

"One hundred and nineteenth week, I gave him the Hailmann beads, and 
as he played with them tried to get him to help me match them. He showed 
little interest; confounded red and orange, purple and blue, constantly. 

"One hundred and twenty-second week, asked him for a red bead, — he 
gave me a yellow one. I said, ' No, that is yellow.' He then picked up all the 
yellow ones, saying with each, ' Yellow,' ' Yellow; ' then collected the red ones 
easily; then lost interest. Two days later he picked up and named the yellow 
ones, then grew obtuse and refused to do anything. Next day when I pro- 



5 2 University of Califoi'nia. [Vol. i. 

interest in color from having always lived in bright sunshine, amid 
profuse color, with flowers as her constant playthings. I do not 
think that our early efforts to see if she could grasp color names 
had much to do in stimulating their use, for after all it arrived at 
about the same time as the use of other adjectives. The usual 
superiority of women over men in color discrimination is so easily 
accounted for by their attention to dress and household furnishing 
that it would be mere speculation, until further evidence, to conjec- 
ture that sex had any bearing on the question. 

I now showed her, 659th day, the difference between light and 
dark green. She at once grasped it, and named them correctly half 
a dozen times. A week later I showed her the light green, and 
asked, "What kindof green is that?" — "Lightgreen." "Andthat?" 
— She hesitated : " Black green — no ! " I gave her the word dark, 
then altered positions and asked for it, and she selected it promptly. 
I then put the dark and light blue side by side, and asked her which 
was which: she could distinguish at once, following the analogy of 
the greens. Two days later, I asked her again and found that she 
stumbled over the light blue and dark blue when shown them sep- 
arately, but shown them together distinguished at once; then of 
her own accord she selected "li gee" and "da gee" several times. 
Nothing could have been more quick and clear than her compre- 
hension of the nature of the distinction. From time to time since I 
have asked her the question as to red, yellow, gray, etc., and she 
never failed to distinguish if the two were seen together. 

duced the box of beads he forestalled all experiments on my part by saying, 
' You are my baby, — you say what color that. ' 

"In these experiments I did not ask the child directly the color of the 
beads, but suggested making a yellow train of cars, a red fence, etc. If he 
picked up the first bead at random, as he usually did, I rejected it, saying em- 
phatically, ' No, we want yellow ones. ' 

"At no time did he appear to take any real interest in the color, just a 
forced one for the sake of something else." 

Mrs. Katherine Slack (Ph. B., University of California) had a similar expe- 
rience witli her daughter, about two years old. It was impossible to occupy 
her mind with the simple color demand; she wished to have the tablets, to play 
they were money, to do this and that. Both these children were more ingen- 
ious and imaginative than my niece, and more advanced in speech. I judge 
they were quite as able to distinguish color, but not interested in so simple an 
occupation. They are both city bred. 



Shinn.] Tlie Development of a Child. 53 

The next day she showed a curious lapse in what seemed per- 
fectly fixed knowledge, by calling a blue bird on some Japanese 
panels red, and a brown bird blue. It was the last instance of such 
confusions: the next day while in the midst of a wail over a bump, 
she chanced to glance at the book shelves, and cried: "Blue book 
up there! Violet book up there! Blue book and violet book!" 
pointing. The "violet book" was a very violet blue, and standing 
next a pale, unmixed blue, looked still nearer violet. She was 
fascinated with the shelves for some time, pointing to book after 
book, and naming its color, — red, green, and blue, all correctly; 
green especially was recognized in various indeterminate tones. A 
brown that approached an orange-red shade, she first called orange, 
then, dissatisfied, asked, "What that?" I told her a sort of brown. 
"No. That brown," she said, pointing to one nearer the burnt um- 
ber; "that brown; that brown," indicating one after another discrim- 
inatingly. A dark greenish blue, exceedingly difficult to determine, 
called out the comment, "That blue." Having gone about my af- 
fairs, I found her a little later trying with zeal to collect all the red 
books she could climb up to, — "There another red one; Ruth want 
red book." Later in the day she found some tablets I had laid 
aside, which were meant as transitions between the colors, and 
pulled them from the envelope, saying of the orange-red, "That 
orange," but of the red-violet, blue-green, orange-yellow, "What 
that?" Her mother said that during the early part of the month 
she insisted on calling a bright brown dog orange. 

Though she desired the tablets chiefly for their forms, the next 
day she occupied herself in gathering out the white ones, without 
reference to figure; the day after, the white circles only were culled 
out. 

In the twenty-third month, 685th day, I again noted some com- 
ments as she pulled out the books. Once, "That white — these 
white," glancing from the book she held in her hand to the row of 
white ones. Red-brown books she called red, other browns brown. 
She declined to recognize a light blue as blue, though she gave it 
no other name. When I called a violet-blue "blue," she corrected 
me, "That violet." It was really almost as near to violet as to blue. 

Color names were in this last quarter year used as freely as any 
words in her talk. Thus, 666th day, gathering seeds from an 



54 University of California. [Vol. i. 

acacia branch where both ripe and unripe ones hung, she kept up a 
broken comment: — " Have black seeds. Ruth got green seeds, — 
black seeds. — No; green: aunty hold down \i. e., I wish to have 
black seeds. I have green, — I am going to get black. — No, I have 
green again: I wish aunty to hold down the branch.] — Black seeds 
way up there. — There black seeds. — These green seeds. — Ruth have 
black seeds; aunty have these [green ones]." So in the twenty-third 
month, e. g., she begged for "aunty's white hat;" and as we drove 
away from a standing train at twilight, losing sight of the lantern at 
the rear, "I don't know where green light"; as she failed to string 
a bead, "That time Ruth didn't get red ball;" seeing her dress on 
the line, "Aunty, that Ruth dear little pink dress;" of a lamp chim- 
ney, "That get pretty black." In the twenty-fourth month, e.g., 
looking out of the window to see things in the garden, "Where red 
geraniums?" selecting among colored lozenges, "Ruth did take 
violet;" seeing a bunch of balloons, "Mamma, see that balloon! 
Ruth want that beautiful violet balloon, and that beautiful green 
balloon too!" (The last two instances from her mother's notes, 
during an absence.) 

The most marked form of color interest during the twenty-third 
and twenty-fourth months was with regard to our gowns. She had 
anticipated this once at the end of the twenty-first month: seeing 
me about to change my gown, she urged, "Aunty, put on blue 
dress ! " I brought out the heliotrope gown I was about to put on, 
but she persisted in urging the blue, and I indulged her. She now 
recurred to the interest as a habit: the 674th day she cried out the 
moment I entered the breakfast room that I had another dress on, 
not my blue dress; and next day came to my room just as I was 
dressed, and seeing the brown gown laid aside, commented, "Aunty 
need blue dress; aunty does n't need that dress anymore." She 
was also interested to have me wear a figured challi with lemon 
ground, which she called yellow. She often came to my room in 
the morning before I was dressed, and at such times I usually had 
to reason with her if I wished to put on a dull -colored gown. The 
719th day, seeing a brown gown laid out, "Aunty don't need this 
dress," and running to the closet she managed to jerk from the hook 
a blue one, and urged me to wear it. The 729th day she had been 
away all day, and in the afternoon I had changed a brown gown 



Shinn.] Tlie Development of a Child. 55 

for the lemon one; on her return at twihght I went out to Hft her 
from the carriage, and was greeted, "Aunty, you did n't want your 
brown dress on; you want your yellow dress." After she had had 
her dinner, she returned to the subject, and asked why I did not 
wear my "black dress," a gown that had excited her curiosity sev- 
eral times, being seldom seen. Next morning, after remarking as 
usual on my gown, she asked if I did not wish to put on my " black 
silk." I never thought her preferences among my gowns altogether 
due to color; she doubtless had choices as to cut and trimming, and 
association counted for something, — the dull gowns were oftener 
worn when I went to the city, the brighter ones when I stayed with 
her. 

Finally, as to the light thrown upon color interest and color 
preference, aside from what has already been given in connection 
with the color names: — 

In the nineteenth month, the flowers that interested her (besides 
roses, which were always favorites) were nasturtiums and fuchsias, 
— red, yellow, and purple. In the latter part of the twentieth month, 
she was perfectly fascinated with red gladioles just coming into bloom, 
and hung about the buds trying to peep in where the color showed. 
The yellow and yellow-mottled leaves on a euonymus attracted her 
like flowers, and she was very desirous of picking them. She was 
especially fond of sweet peas, pink and purple, but their long stems 
had much to do with it. She seemed at this time to prefer the blue 
and green books on my shelves, but size and convenience of carry- 
ing about was her chief standard of selection. In the twenty-third 
month she was often occupied in stringing Kallmann beads; the first 
time she seemed to prefer red and orange, showing no great liking 
for yellow; the second, she chose first the red, then orange, then 
yellow, and though she gave preference to balls to string, would 
take the cubes of warm colors before the balls of cold, — when all 
the warm colors were gone she took green, blue, and violet at ran- 
dom. This was in the evening; the next time, by bright morning 
light, she took first yellow, then red, and one blue bead in the midst 
of the red and yellow. I thought the red beads better liked than 
the red tablets because they were of a yellower tone. A few days 
later, in still brighter light, outdoors, she seemed better pleased with 
the violet, green, and blue beads than in the house, but still pre- 



5 6 University of California. [Vol. i. 

ferred the warm colors. On another occasion she gave some 
preference to green; on another to orange, then red. In the twenty- 
fourth month, red, yellow, and orange was once the order of pref- 
erence, then violet or blue; another time yellow was slightly pre- 
ferred; another time, at the very end of the month, violet was first 
selected, then yellow, green, and blue, while red and orange were 
rejected altogether. In all other cases the colors were taken at 
random. 

It is scarcely possible to generalize from these contradictory 
choices, but it is sufficiently evident that the warm colors were still, 
throughout the second year, better liked than the cold, though the 
difference was not so marked as in the first year. Yet although I 
watched with the expectation of finding evidence that the cold 
colors were not clearly see7i by her, I never saw any reason to think 
that in the last half of the second year there was any material 
difference between her color seeing and ours. Indeed, her dis- 
crimination of mixed colors was sometimes better than mine, as I 
would learn by later comparison with standards.^ That the cold 
colors were duller to her than to us seems likely; but the difference 
from adult vision certainly could not have been great. I never 
heard her miscall any of them as gray, in whatever tint; though 
she did sometimes call their dark shades black, especially in dim 
lieht 



^ Bradley's Educational Colored Papers. 



shinn Tlie Development of a Child. 57 



7. Form. 

This subject belongs in the main under Sight; and though the 
perception of soHd form brings in both Feeling and Inference, I do 
not wish to divide the topic, and so place it here. 

Passing over for the moment^ those primitive observations by 
which a baby familiarizes itself with form, first in looking from all 
sides at objects, then in handling them, the first definite observations 
I made were with reference to the confusion of plane and solid form. 
This was not frequent. In the twentieth week, as soon as seizing 
had fairly become a habit, the baby would put out her hands for 
pictures on the wall, figures on the tray, roses on the quilt; but 
seemed easily to learn what could be taken hold of, and I have no 
farther note of such errors (unles's her putting out her hands to touch 
pictures on the wall, to which she was held up) till the 154th day, 
when she spent some time dabbing at the pictures in a colored linen 
book and trying to pick them up, but never afterward that I saw; 
and again on the 167th day she tried to pick up figures on the car- 
pet, and the 177th to take in her hand a hole in a knit shawl, which 
looked dark in the colored wool. I have no note of a similar error 
later than the sixth month, except that at the end of the ninth, 
271st day, she tried with some persistence to pick up the moving 
shadow of a rope end on the deck of a yacht; the motion probably 
deceiving her in this case. 

Two odd indications of entire dependence on former experience 
instead of direct comprehension of form, occurred just before and 
just after she was six months old. She was very fond of drawing 
our hair through her fingers; and the i8ist day, getting a chance 
to try her uncle's, which was visibly unpullable, scolded with com- 
ical disappointment at finding the close-shorn ends could not be 
seized. This happened again on the 185th day. On the same day 
she was given a round cracker for the first time. She turned it 
about carefully, as she was accustomed to do with a square one, 
seeking the corner to bite. 

All her recognition of objects, of course, rested largely on dis- 



^ See Interpretation below. 



5 8 University of Calif orjiia. [Vol. i. 

crimination of form; and still more her recognition of uncolored 
pictures, which began in the eleventh month. She never, from this 
time on, showed any distinct preference for colored over uncolored 
pictures. I have so many notes on recognition of pictures, however, 
that I shall make a separate group of them. 

About the beginning of the twelfth month her grandmother 
taught her the letter O, which she first pointed out correctly the 
343d day and always knew thereafter; a little later the same day 
she found a large Q, on the letter card she was playing with, and 
held it out to her grandmother with a questioning sound. She ev- 
idently recognized the resemblance to the figure she knew, and yet 
regarded it with doubt, conscious of a difference. 

By the middle of the thirteenth month she knew O in all sizes 
large enough to be clear of the context, rarely smaller than bour- 
geois upper case (0), but the 382d day she picked it out in the midst 
of bourgeois text (o). In the next few days she was disposed to hunt 
for and announce lower case o's in books, but sometimes mistook 
c for o. 

Near the end of the month, 393d day, her grandmother taught 
her S, which she learned without trouble. Her curiosity and ques- 
tions about Q led her mother finally to give her its name, and be- 
fore the end of the sixteenth month she knew it well. In the 
eighteenth month she pointed out and named O and S frequently. 

The 543d day her mother marked a square and circle on paper, 
and named them once to the child, who thereafter distinguished 
them with ease; this I did not see, but later in the day, being told 
of it, tried it myself, and found that she named the two figures 
readily without mistake. Her mother had named the circle to her 
as "round O," and this was not entirely replaced by "circle" before 
the third year. 

The 553d day, in the nineteenth month, she called a roughly 
made square "ka," without the least hesitation. She often asked to 
have "wou' O" made for her on paper; and on the 559th day began 
without suggestion to try to make it herself, carrying the line 
around to meet itself in a long, uneven loop, saying, "Wou,' wou' 
O ! " as she did it. She liked to see a square drawn, laughing when I 
began it, and calling, "Ka!" and "More!" till I had drawn a great 
many. The 563d day she started to draw a "wou' O," then began 



SlIINN.] 



The Development of a CJiild. 



calling it a "wou' ka," round square. I thought from the motion 
of her hand she was really aiming at a square; however, it did not 
approximate one, and she made no further attempt at squares. She 
continued to ask to have the figures she knew drawn for her at in- 
tervals throughout the year, and to try circles and later ellipses her- 
self 




First attempts at circle, 559th day.' 



^ In tracing these attempts for reproduction (with the exception of Fig. 2), 
pains has been taken to preserve the character of the line, but it has neces- 
sarily lost a trifle in decision. Figs. 2 and 4 are % the original diameter. 



6o 



University of California. 



[Vol. 



Fig. 2. Early attempt at circle, 566th day. 




Fig. 3. Circle and problematic attempts, 662d day. 



Shinn.; Tlie Development of a Child. 



6i 




Fig 4. First attempt at ellipses, 673d day. Very typical of drawings in 23d month. 



52 University of California. [Voi.. i. 

Here was an interest in form, and an ability to discriminate it, that 
should perhaps have given it precedence over color in my experi- 
ments; certainly to distinguish and name a lower case bourgeois o 
in the middle of text in the thirteenth month, was proof of ability 
to distinguish and name a circle, and probably other figures, some 
time before she could name colors. My attention, however, was on 
the color tests, and I deprecated following up the subject of form 
for fear of making too much demand on her attention. Beyond the 
occasional drawing of the figures for her, and probably a few ran- 
dom inquiries as to their names, nothing more was said to her 
about it till late in the twentieth month, 598th day, when the new 
tablets mentioned under Color, — squares, circles, and oblongs, — 
were given her; those I had used before were all oblong. After 
turning them over a little, she noticed that some were circles, and 
spoke of it. I then asked, "What is this? " showing a square. She 
did not at first understand what I wished; then suddenly cried that 
it was a "bi' boo ka!" a big blue square. The combination of the 
color and form observation spontaneously made on this occasion, 
she found harder to make on request a few days later, as related 
above under Color. 

For a few days after the gift of these tablets her interest in them 
was to gather out the yellow and orange ones ; but within a week 
she began to select by forms, and would pick up all the circles, or 
the oblongs, never the squares, and pile them in her hand with the 
remark, " Ruth pile; " a method of occupation with them that lasted 
with little decline of interest till the twenty-fourth month. Oblongs 
were from the first somewhat favored in these selections, and in the 
latter part of the twenty-first month, this preference and the indiffer- 
ence to squares became quite marked. The 628th day I had been 
giving her a color test, in which she had answered cheerfully and 
correctly till I came to the squares, then had refused to go on; I 
then laid the oblongs away in the box and gave her the other figures; 
but she began to call, "Oblong! Oblong in box!" and continued to 
appeal till I gave them to her. If I asked whether she would have 
squares or rounds, she would always say "rounds," and sort out 
the squares and hand to me, but carefully stow every circle in her 
own hand; once in the last week of the month, however, left with- 
out any request from me, she took the oblongs for herself, turning 



Shinn.] Tlie Development of a Child. 63 

over the squares as usual to me. It evidently required absorption 
of mind thus to carry two sets at once in her attention, and she 
would be annoyed when sorting squares and oblongs to be asked 
about circles or triangles. On the 63 2d day she began to call for 
the tablets under the name of "oblongs," instead of "colors;" this, 
unlike her "red and green" for the colors in general, corresponded 
to her preference. In the twenty-fourth month she called them 
"shapes." 

The 657th day, having the evening before just renewed her 
acquaintance with the tablets after some two weeks' absence, 
she asked for the "oblongs" before breakfast, and when I took 
occasion to give her a color test, wished only the oblong ones used. 
After her bath and breakfast, she went immediately to look for her 
cap to go outdoors, and asked for the "oblongs" to take with her. 
Allowed to play with them on the doorstone, and offered a square, 
she protested, " Ruth want oblong." I gave her the box and she 
shook them all out, then picked up every oblong. As she took the 
last one from each little group in which the tablets lay scattered, 
she would say, "No more oblong there." At first I said, "Why, 
yes, aunty sees more oblongs," but she answered, "No more oblong 
there,'^ and turned to another group. After getting all the oblongs, 
she picked up the squares one by one, put them in the box, and 
suggested that it be put away. The others she treated with indif- 
ference. Two days later, having asked for "oblongs" and received 
the box, she at once chose out all the oblongs, and then ignoring 
the rest, proposed she should "go outdoors with the oblongs." 
Upon suggestion, however, she chose out the circles and squares 
and handed me. "Aunty don't want oblong; aunty want square," 
she observed, probably interpreting thus my efforts to prevent the 
square's being entirely forgotten. When I ranged them in rows by 
shape, she was interested and tried to help, but did not get the idea 
of a row; when I began to arrange them by color, she objected 
whenever I put an oblong aside and rescued it each time, with, 
" No, Rtith want oblong." 

Two days later I asked her, "Which does Ruth Hke best?" nam- 
ing over the shapes. She did not understand the form of question, 
so I asked again, "Which does Ruth like?" and she answered, 
"Oblong." On the 669th day, as I took down the box at her 



64 Univa^sity of California. [Vol. i. 

request for "oblongs" she remarked, "Ruth not want square," then, 
"Not triangle." And she did in fact occupy herself gathering out 
circles and oblongs, — the white ones only, though she had been 
indifferent to color. The next day, the last of the twenty-second 
month, she chose white circles only, and during the twenty-third 
month collected circles rather than oblongs; but she was by this 
time losing interest in the tablets altogether, and in the twenty-fourth 
month did not occupy herself much with them. 

The interest in the oblong, which had for six weeks been so 
persistent, was probably simply due to convenience in holding; the 
oblong tablets fitted her little fist very nicely, and she was solicitous 
to have them laid in an even pile therein. On the 630th day she 
was displeased that they were uneven, and called on her mother to 
"fix" them. The 634th day she found two very long and narrow 
oblongs, which had been cut from colored card, and tried to fit them 
in with the others, but finding she could not, rejected them as "too 
big." Two others, which were smaller than her set, she did not 
object to as too little, but was delighted with them, crying out over 
them as "cunning little bit oblongs !" and losing tliem and finding 
again with joy. The circles were somewhat less convenient, and 
the squares, with their corners, least of all. 

Though her spontaneous sortings out showed 'i;hat from the first 
she distinguished the figures easily, she had up to the end of the 
twenty-first month some difficulty in naming them. In the first 
week that she had them, the eighty-sixth, though she had seemed to 
know two of the three forms well when drawn, if asked to give 
either one she chose it hesitantly, and not always rightly. The 
next week, told to gather out the "rounds" she did it, 608th day, 
hesitantly, but with growing confidence as we encouraged her, till 
she had them all. By the eighty-ninth week the oblong, though 
the favorite, was the only one she could not distinguish easily when 
called for; she confused it a little with the square. When asked to 
name them she made occasional mistakes in all. The next week she 
could find any one when called for, but could not always name the 
oblong and triangle. 

This fourth figure, with which she was much pleased, I had 
introduced to her in the eighty-ninth week, 6i8th day. The 630th 



Shinn] The Development of a Child. - 65 

day, hearing- something said of triangles, she began to beg for "ti-a," 
and her mother made her one out of paper; then, thinking it well 
that she should have some among her tablets, a cousin present 
bisected several of the squares; she was much interested in this, and 
understood that they were made from squares, for she went and 
found another square and brought it to her cousin, asking for "more 
triangle." She also kept her mother cutting more out of paper, 
and wished to preserve these carefully with her tablets; and the 
634th day neglected her favorite oblongs for a time to gather out 
the new form instead. 

After the ninetieth week I never heard her misname any of the 
plane forms. In the ninety-first, the last week of the month, I took 
occasion three times after a color test to ask a few questions as to 
the figures, and was always answered correctly. The number of 
answers noted was 

Circle 2, Square 5, Oblong 17, Triangle 12. 
After this she seemed as familiar with the names as with " table " or 
"chair." Upon her return on the 656th day from the two weeks' 
absence in the twenty-second month mentioned above, her first 
indoor interest was to run to the closet and ask for "oblong;" and 
while she pulled them over for nearly three-fourths of an hour, she 
commented: "That oblong;" "That triangle;" "That square;'' 
"Ruth don't want round O," handing it to her mother; "Aunty 
have round O;" etc. The 659th day, as she collected out either 
set, she would observe, "There another oblong. . . . No more 
oblong? — There oblong," — or square, or whatever the one she was 
collecting. If she picked up a wrong one by accident, she would 
say as she rejected it, "That round," triangle, etc. The forms drawn 
were as invariably called correctly as in the tablets. At this time, 
and indeed by the end of the twenty-first month, she could tell the 
letters O, S, and B instantly wherever seen. 

As the O seen in print is so often an ellipse, I had tried to 
disconnect its name from the circle, compromising with her name 
of " round O " by saying " round ; " she had not taken this up to any 
extent, however. Just before the end of the twenty-second month, 
the 669th day, she pointed out a small artificial pond in form an 
ellipse, as a "round O." This decided me to give her the word circle, 
which she atfirst objected to, saying, " No ! " but soon took up at least 



66 University of California. [Vol. i. 

in part; and also to teach her the ellipse. She took this figure 
up with pleasure, and an hour later could name it, " el-li," or 
find it if asked for. She did not remember the word next day, but 
knew the figure very well, and distinguished it from circle without 
the least difficulty. She took much interest in it, and kept me 
drawing "another ellipse" for a long time. The 675th day she 
tried to draw ellipses as well as circles. The 693d day I began to 
set her oblong tablets in a row, saying by a slip of tongue, "Aunty 
will put the ellipses in a row." She cried out in deep concern 
*'Aunty, these not ellipse, — these oblong," and it was not till I had 
made the amplest retraction and apology that she ceased repeat- 
ing, " These not ellipse, these oblong ! " 

The effort to name the form of the pond was an instance of a 
habit taken up something over a week before — the application of 
her knowledge of figures to objects about her. As she sat on her 
mother's lap to be wiped after her bath she suddenly cried, pointing 
to the wooden frame of the tub, "Cunning little oblong!" There 
was a roughly oblong scar or spot on the wood. I pointed out to 
her another, approximately triangular, and she called it a triangle. 
Later I showed her the points of a man's collar turned over, and 
asked their shape; she said, "Triangle." Her mother said that the 
day before she called bobbins "cunning little oblong spools." The 
next day, again while being wiped after her bath, she cried suddenly, 
pointing to some circular figures in the border of the towel, "Round 
O there!" then, looking about the room, "No more round O;" then 
as her eyes rested on the door panels, she shouted with much vi- 
vacity and joy, "That oblong over there!" pointing; then pointing 
to the lower panels, which are smaller, "That cunning little oblong." 
As we laughed at this estimate of size, she thought it must be funny, 
and kept repeating, and made no farther search for forms. The 
668th day she drew a hairpin from her mother's hair (again while 
being wiped after her bath) and pulled the points apart some forty- 
five degrees; then, struck by its appearance, held it up and cried, 
"Triangle!" A half hour later I gave her a hairpin and suggested 
that she make a triangle, and she drew the points apart as before, 
held it up, and announced, " Ti-a ! " The next day, 667th, she drew 
my attention to the triangles on the corner of a writing tablet, and 



Shinn.] The Development of a CJiild. 67 

the 668th named those on the corners of a book thus finished orna- 
mentally. In the twenty-third month she recognized the plane fig- 
ures with pleasure when her mother laid building blocks to outline 
them (673d day) and later brought them to me to "make oblong." 
When I had made one she said, "That big oblong; make little ob- 
long." After it was made, "Make no more oblong. Ruth take 
back," and carried back the blocks. In the evening I made a tri- 
angle with my fingers and held them up to her without naming the 
figure. Perhaps because she was at dinner this seemed to annoy 
her, and she said, "Make no more triangle." The 691st day she 
tried to put a circle of cloth over her doll's feet, observing, " Ruth 
try put on round O — for Tommy feet — little drawers." The 
695th day, she set her shoes with heels together and toes diverging, 
and said, "Ruth shoes make triangle;" then set them parallel, — 
"Now make oblong." 

The flexibility and perfection of her knowledge of these figures 
was surprising to everyone who saw her show it. From this time 
on, at intervals, she has always noticed and named the plane figures to 
be seen about her, in buildings, furniture, etc. Yet on the 699th 
day when I called her attention to the fact that the moon was round, 
she objected. "That not round O — that moon." — ''Yes, it is not 
a round O; it is the round moon." She made no further remon- 
strance and looked at the moon thoughtfully. 

Of course the forms she observed about her were often quite in- 
exact; I had observed from the middle of the twenty-first month 
that it seemed even easier for her to see the essential plane form in 
a rough approximation than the essential color in mixed tones. 
The day after I showed her the triangle, the 619th, I found her play- 
ing with rough paper shapes, which her mother had been tearing 
out of paper; her mother said that the child had herself torn off ob- 
longs from a strip of paper and named them rightly. As I looked 
on, she picked up two or three roughly triangular fragments and 
called them triangles. The oblongs cut for her from cardboard 
were of various proportions, but she called them all oblongs readily. 
That she could discriminate by comparatively small differences in 
form, however, was evident from her easily distinguishing the circle 
and ellipse. 



58 University of California. [Vol. i- 

Just before the end of the twenty-second month, 666th day, I 
asked her as she played with some building blocks, long quadran- 
gular prisms, "What shape is that?" The question was unreason- 
able, for she had no reason to suppose "shape" referred to anything 
but plane surface; but she responded instantly, " Oblong." Shorter 
cnes were "cunning little oblongs;" a cube she called a square.' 
Showed the end of the form she called an oblong she hesitated, 
visibly puzzled by the contradiction, but said it was square. A cube 
cut diagonally she had no name for, and was not interested in. 

Early in the twenty-third month, 673d day, I gave her the Hail- 
mann beads, — small spheres, cubes, and cylinders for stringing. I 
gave her the spheres only, which I called balls, thinking the word 
simpler and quite as exact. She was greatly interested in them, but 
not at all disposed to string them, and wished merely to tumble 
them about. The next day I kept them in my own hands, and, 
using both cubes and spheres, insisted on her earning them to play 
with by first stringing them. With more trouble than I had had 
with any similar exercise, I established this habit. The cubes were 
easier to string, but she liked the balls best. She began at once to 
use "little balls" as a general name for the beads, and to coax for 
them. E. ^.,the evening after I had taught her to string them, 
she asked for them again and was put off till after dinner; and 
although the dinner chanced to involve a long and exciting contest 
on a point of table behavior, and also a great deal of concern over a 
plum that had been promised her some time before, when it was all 
over and hands washed, she ran to me, laid both hands on my arm 
and jumped up and down by it, reached up and kissed me on both 
cheeks, then cried, " Now little balls ! " The next morning she 
asked for them soon after breakfast. Within three weeks her inter- 
est flagged, but was renewed by my bringing out the cylinders on 
the 692d day, and lasted till the middle of the twenty-fourth month. 
It was hard to get her to accept the name "cube;" she called the 
cubes "squares." By the 676th day, the third of her acquaintance 
with them, she would point them out correctly if asked, but still did 
not have the word; the 680th day she still called them squares; 



' I have repeatedly heard grown people call the prism an oblong, and the 
cube a square. 



•=""'^'^■1 TJie Development of a Child. 69 

the 68ist instead of asking for "little balls," she asked fur the 
"squares— no — "and hesitated. I tried to get the word cube 
from her in vain, yet asked to point out the cube, she could do it 
unerringly. I brought out the square tablets and showed one to 
her beside a cube; she could tell which was which with ease, and 
was interested in the points of difference, and tried to carry on my 
exposition by turning over the cube and saying, "That got hole in." 
I had already provided against her regarding this an essential part 
of a cube by showing her the cubes among the building blocks, 
and when I reminded her that they had no holes, she assented 
Four days later she was still troubled by the word, and asked for it 
would hesitate, — "Ka?— no?" and finally "coo !" with an effort. 
With the name "cylinder" she experienced little trouble. During 
the iwenty-fourth month she asked for the beads either as cubes, 
or "my little cubes and cyhnders." 

The 67Sth day after showing her, as mentioned above, that the 
cubes among the building blocks had no holes, I asked her to find 
me some cubes in the box. She presently cried out with joy that 
she Jiad one and came to show me the half-cube. I turned it all 
over and showed her its shape, saying, "That is not a cube." 
*'No — that triangle," she said, and went back with me and found a 
cube. When I showed her the two side by side, she said again, 
" That triangle." Though she accepted the building blocks, which 
were not much larger than the beads, as cubes, it was very hard for 
her to generalize the idea of solid form, and at the very time we 
were so struck with her ready discernment of the plane forms every- 
where, she refused, 695th day, to accept as cubes her larger letter 
blocks. I succeeded, however, in having her accept an Indian bead, 
longer and slenderer than the Kallmann bead, as a cylinder; and 
the 699th day I told her to find a cube in her box of blocks, and 
she seized at once one of the large letter blocks and said, "There 
cube!" then searched in the box and found a prism that was of 
such length as to equal two cubes. "That not cube, that oblong," 
she said, then found the half cubes, saying of each, " That not 
cube,— that triangle;" finally a cube, "That cube." Finding an 
irregular piece from a door frame among the blocks, " What that? " 
She was interested on being shown that a rolled up picture was a 
cylinder. Once in the twenty-fourth month, asked the shape 



yo University of California. [Vol. i. 

of a straw, she said, "oblong," but agreed when told it was a cylinder. 
Although when told she could perceive some correspondence be- 
tween the forms of other objects and those so well known in her 
beads, she did not at any time apply the lesson herself, and though 
for a while she was fond of the beads as playthings, she took no 
such interest in solid form as in plane form, and showed no such 
power of comprehending it. 

The 678th day I showed her that the cubes stood firm, while 
balls rolled round at a slight movement of the box. Two days 
later, taking a ball to string, she laid it down, saying, "Ball won't 
stand." The 685th day again she commented, "Little balls roll, 
little cubes stand still." This point she never forgot, and it inter- 
ested her moderately; but I did not see her show any farther interest 
in the properties and differences of the forms. Once, 694th day, I 
asked her what was the shape of the shadows of the cylinders, and 
she answered oblong easily, but showed no especial interest, and 
never reverted to the fact in any way. Her playing with the beads 
had no originality, and unless closely supervised by me, degenerated 
at once into mere scattering them about. In the ninety-ninth week 
she tried a little to place them, and also the tablets in rows, but she 
had often seen me do this. There were also some interesting experi- 
ments in piling and grouping, but they have more bearing on the 
subject of number than form. The solid forms, as forms, were evi- 
dently not very interesting or suggestive to her. 

The last day of the year but one, I tried an experiment that I 
will for completeness place here, instead of under the head of 
Feeling. I put several beads of each form into a bag and let the 
child take out one at a time, telling me what it was before she 
brought it to sight. She named the cube three times right, and once 
said it was a ball ; the ball three times right, and wrong not at all ; the 
cylinder was once called a cube, once named rightly. The exercise 
amused her much, and she laughed aloud at each effort. This play 
was tried a few times in the third year with similar results. 

I will add that now in the third year I still fail to wake any de- 
cided interest, or any originality of observation concerning solid 
form; color and plane form are no longer matters of curiosity, and 
her attention is not on them, but they are matters of everyday in- 
terest, and color especially is habitually noticed and often com- 
mented on. 



Shinn.] The Development of a CJiild. yi 



8. Pictures and Other Representations. 

Although from the fourth month the baby hked to look at 
pictures on the wall when held up to them, the first entirely spon- 
taneous notice taken of them was not till the tenth month, when 
she suddenly (277th day) noticed with joy a colored picture of a 
child, and thereafter noticed it persistently, and also desired to be 
carried about to see the other pictures/ About the same time she 
began to notice and desire a card photograph of herself and grand- 
father on the mantel, and with a little suggestion kissed them, but 
I donotthink she recognized them as representations. She was taught 
in the forty-first week to look at a picture on the wall when asked, 
"Where is Mr. Longfellow?" but had no idea of its meaning, and 
indeed for some time confused it with some colored figures in the 
frieze above. On the 286th day she became confused between her 
grandfather and the picture, which I attributed to mere confusion 
between the names, as she was but just beginning to understand 
words; but it may have been that the white beard and slight gen- 
eral likeness had something to do with it. The next day, asked 
for Longfellow, she turned and pointed to a companion picture of 
Emerson on another wall, showing that she had observed the re- 
semblance. After this she repeatedly showed unmistakably that 
she compared the three other portraits on the wall with Longfellow, 
but not two Raphael cherubs, not far from the same size. Yet as 
late as the 309th day, in other houses, asked for Longfellow, she 
would point to any picture in a similar location on the wall, but not 
to a similar picture of Longfellow in a different place. 

The 293d day I first thought she saw the relation of a picture to 

3 Mrs. Beatty's boy was interested in tiie fourtli montli in uncolored pictures 
shown him, 113th day, and the next day seemed trying to get hold of flowers 
on the lounge cover. At eleven months he was much interested in pictures on 
the wall; the 336th day, taken into a room where a large engraving of Tenny- 
son had been hung, he noticed it at once, pointed to it, and wished to go near; 
looked at it with delight, then at his mother, then around at the other pictures. 
Every time he was taken into the room, during this and the next day, he wished 
to be taken to it and to look at it. A copy of the Sistine Madonna was also a 
favorite. 



72 University of California. [Vol. i. 

an object. She was shown a Hfe-size painting of a cat, and told it 
was "kitty." The cats were at that time objects of exciting inter- 
est, and she now became excited over this picture, crying out as 
she did at sight of the cats, and thereafter seemed to recognize it 
without difficulty, judging by the similarity of demonstration toward 
it and the real cats. Within the next month she made discovery of 
the purpose of a smaller picture of a cat, uncolored, in a picture 
book. The pictures in this book had been named over to her as 
the pages were turned, merely to amuse her, without effort to teach, 
and I had no idea she knew any; but on the 327th day I asked at 
random, "Where is the kitty?" when, to my surprise, she turned 
over the leaves and found a picture of a cat's head, full front, and 
put her finger on it with a cry. She could not do this again that 
day, but a day or two later, proved to be perfectly sure of it, though 
other pictures of cats in the book, which were colored, were not 
noticed ; she would turn the leaves searching for it unasked. 

Earlier than this, however, on the 316th day, noticing her inter- 
est in flowers on my gown, I said, "Where are the flowers?" She 
leaned over and touched them, then immediately looked out to the 
garden with a cry of desire. Next day, standing near the wall, far 
from a window, I asked, "Where are the flowers?" She leaned 
from my arms and put her finger on a rose on the wall paper. I 
carried her nearer the window and asked again, and she pointed out 
of the window with a cry of desire. At another time, asked the 
same question, she pointed first to the pictured flowers, then to 
flowers in a vase. She never at this time pointed to rosettes or con- 
ventional figures as flowers. In the second year, however, and so 
late as the eighteenth month, she did occasionally mistake such a 
figure for a picture of a flower. The 333d day, she could point, 
when asked, to a picture of a dog on the wall, and probably under- 
stood what it represented. 

As she did not try to treat the pictured objects as real ones, yet 
attached the same name to them as to the real ones, and experienced 
desire for the object at sight of the representation, it would seem 
that at eleven months she understood the purport of a picture quite 
well. The only time up to this date that she had seemed to confuse 
one with the reality, was on the 329th and 330th days, when she 
offered her cracker to the portraits on the walls, but she also offered 



Shinn ] The Development of a CJiild. 73 

it to other objects, and I thought it a sort of whim or play, partly 
suggested to her. In the second year, two other instances occurred ; 
the 402d day she bent to smell a picture of a rose, and the 477th, 
after asking each member of the family to reproduce a sneeze that 
had interested her, she appealed to the portraits to do it. The 
499th day, also, she was perplexed by a realistic picture card, in 
which a donkey put his head through a window that was actually cut 
out; she turned this over and seemed surprised to fiad only blank 
paper and a hole, into which she put her fingers curiously, saying, 
" Fo! " (hole). She never tried to feel or pick up a picture. 

The twelfth month, birds on a screen and a cup, and cat, dog, and 
flowers in all pictures came to be recognized; once, 349th day, she 
pointed out a ball in an uncolored picture. In the thirteenth month, 
378th day, she recognized a small picture of kittens, not more than 
an inch long; in the fifty-fifth week, without any teaching beyond 
her acquaintance with the objects represented, she could point out 
kitty's ribbon, kitty's eyes, the man's glasses, etc., in pictures, and 
would greet a pictured dog with "bow wow," as readily as a real 
one. In the fourteenth month, 399th day, she compared a cap on a 
cat in a picture with her grandmother's cap, and would sometimes 
point out eyes, hair, and feet in the small figures in her books. The 
405th day she pointed to a small, uncolored photo-engraving of a 
horse, then through the window to a horse tied outside; she had 
for nearly a month been deeply interested in this and companion 
pictures of horses, and I thought from the first that she understood 
them. In the fifteenth month, 446th day, seeing a picture of the 
"three little kittens" seated at dinner, she began to smack her lips, 
pointing to the table. At sixteen months, though she had long 
known flowers in general in any picture, she recognized daffodils 
and violets, and at about twenty months, sweet peas, poppies, and 
poppy buds, only in colored pictures; yet by the end of the eight- 
eenth month she could point out flower, leaf, and stem, untaught, 
in rough and uncolored representations. At nineteen months 
(578th day), after being shown the beak of a little dead bird, she 
knew the beaks of birds in pictures. 

From the thirteenth month she could understand pictures of 
known animals in all positions^ showing that she must already have 



74 University of California. [Vol. i. 

a clear remembrance of the living animal in all these. The 384th 
day, given a new picture book, she recognized all the cats and most 
of the dogs in it, in whatever positions; by the first week of the 
fourteenth month, flowers, trees, cats, dogs, cows, and probably 
other objects, were recognized in any good picture, in whatever 
color, size, or position, — a cow stamped on a butter pail once, 445th 
day. Very slight resemblances seemed enough, while large differ- 
ences were unobserved; indeed, she once said "moo" at a picture of 
a camel (445th day). Yet differences once accepted by her as sig- 
nificant were recognized without error; thus donkeys and horses 
were easily known apart. This was the more noticeable, as a don- , 
key, known only in a picture, was recognized at once in other pic- 
tures in quite different positions; this could only have been by the 
analogy of a horse, yet the characteristic differences were kept 
clear. Her mother believed on the 405th day that she recognized a 
barnyard cock from a picture in her book; and certainly a few names 
learned from pictures, as cow, were easily and without surprise 
transferred to the real object. 

Apparently human features in pictures were not as easily recog- 
nized as flowers and animals. At a year old she possibly knew in 
a general way photographs of babies, for she would kiss a new one 
without suggestion; yet I saw her kiss the back of the card once, 
365th day. In the thirteenth month, she wished to be lifted to kiss 
the Raphael cherubs, took especial interest in the portraits on the 
wall, could point out their eyes and hair, and knew Whittier's by 
name and preferred it to Emerson's; these, however, were life-size 
or more. In the fourteenth month, 402d day, she managed with 
some help to identify the Whittier portrait with a small copy of the 
same. Three days later she recognized her father's photograph 
(the face scarcely more than one-fourth inch in diameter), grouped 
with eight others; then after hesitating and being asked many 
times, her uncle's. In cabinet photographs she pointed out four 
other members of the family. None of these photographs had ever 
been shown her before. Early in the eighteenth month she recog- 
nized as a " lady" a dim reproduction in an advertising pamphlet of 
a vignette photograph, and showed it to us with interest. 

After her indentification of the first few objects in pictures in 
the eleventh and twelfth months, she began in the fifty-third week 



Shinn.] TJie Development of a Oiild. 75 

to ask to have them named, turning over the leaves of her book 
and putting her finger on one after another, then looking up into 
our faces with an asking sound. She pointed not to pictures as a 
whole, but to individual objects in them, the same each time, those 
that had attracted her interest; now and then a new one would 
catch her attention, and would be added to the list.^ Throughout 
the thirteenth month this was her chief indoor interest, and afforded 
her singular pleasure ; she would bring the book to her mother, grand- 
mother, or me, begging for such an exercise, and would be happy 
in it sometimes for twenty minutes. In the fifty-sixth week having 
been told, by way of amusing her, the noises made by the various 
animals in the pictures, she would, after asking and being told the 
name of each one, continue to point and urge until its note was 
given. At the end of the sixteenth month, she would go through 
the book, naming the pictures herself, usually by these notes, — 
"moo" for the cow, etc. 

In the latter part of the eighteenth month, she had a recurrence 
of especial interest in pictures, which lasted more or less through the 
twentieth month. The 528th day, turning over a picture book, and 
coming to a page of text, she put her finger on it, and said decidedly, 
"Read! " then on a picture, saying, "Picture! " Anything not text 
— any decoration, or conventional figure — was a "picture." Turning 
over the leaves and naming the pictures as she came to them, she 
would say, "Picture," if she came to an unknown one. Seeing a 
book she would ask if it contained pictures, "Picture?" When 
pulling down mine and piling them on the bed, she would stop from 
time to time, sit down and open one, and examine it: "Picture? 
. . . . Find? . . . . No?" In the middle of the nine- 
teenth month, at sight of a picture of a bird, on the 561st day, the 
interest in pictures narrowed to an almost exclusive desire for 
pictures oi birds, which was for some days a passion; and for weeks 
to "see birdy in book" was a frequent appeal. She had other favor- 
ites, however, usually pictures of animals and children. 

Her interest in pictures during this second period of fondness 
for them was far more complex and intellectual. The picture sug- 

^ In this way some names were first learned in pictures; but where possible I 
would always follow up the picture acquaintance promptly by showing her the 
real object, which greatly increased her interest. 



76 University of California. [vol. -i 

gested not merely the object, but much associated with it. Thus 
in the eighteenth month, 537th day, having picked up a pamphlet, 
with the remark, "Book," she sat down on the stairs saying, 
"Read," discovered a small advertising cut of a dog on the back, 
and commented : " Dog. . . . Bark. . . . Wow-wow-wow- 
wow-wow-wow ! " She stopped to laugh at her imitation, then: 
"Muzhik. . . . Bark. . . . Wow-wow- wow-wow- wow- 
wow! . . . Ruth." (That is a dog. He barks. He barks 
thus, etc. Muzhik also is a dog. He barks. He barks thus, etc. 
Ruth too can do it.) Two days after, seeing a picture of a bell, 
she asked, " Ring ?" In the nineteenth month she showed that she 
understood the action of pictures. The 564th day she commented 
on a child digging with spoon and pail, " In bucket" (Puts the dirt 
in the bucket) ; and on a boy with hand in his pocket, — being asked 
where his hand was, — "Get purse." A more complex comment, 
but probably based on former explanations, was on the 603d day: 
" Ducks swim on water. Old hen." 

By the time she was twenty months old her greatest enthusiasm 
for pictures had passed, though she has had a moderate liking for 
them since, especially in connection with interesting description or 
story. By this time, too, her understanding of pictures was prac- 
tically complete. 

As to the understanding of other representations, the earliest 
ones that came in her way were toy animals and dolls; and the first 
sign of any relation observed between them and the objects they 
represented, was that when her first toy cat was given her, at thirty- 
three weeks, her demonstrations toward it were like those toward 
the real cats ; I thought, however, that this was due to the hairy 
skin more than to any observed likeness in form. On her first 
birthday, she was given a new doll, the old one having been for 
some time broken; the eyes of this doll seemed to interest her, and 
she felt and examined them with curiosity ; told to kiss the doll, she 
kissed its face properly enough, yet afterward presented the back of 
its head for someone else to kiss, Christmas day, which fell in the 
middle of her fifteenth month, she cried " bow-wow" at once on sight 
of a rubber dog, and imitated a mew at sight of a toy kitten. She had 
doubtless understood for some time then what her toy animals were 



SiiiNN.] The Development of a Child. 77 

intended to represent. I have a good many not^s upon her behavior 
to her dolls, but will not enter them here. 

In the sixty-ninth week occurred a curious incident, which comes 
under the present topic as nearly as under any. Being in a dimly- 
lighted room with me in the evening, she suddenly cried eagerly, 
"Eye! eye!" pointing out of the window to the sky, where two 
planets (Jupiter and Venus approaching conjunction) stood close 
together. It was a striking instance of her quickness to see resem- 
blance and her neglect of difference. On the 497th day, as she sat 
in my lap, she suddenly began pointing and crying, "Baby! baby! " 
As I saw nothing that could suggest it, I put her down, saying, 
"Show aunty." She ran to the tray that held the hearth utensils, 
and showed me in the moulding of its back a conventional orna- 
ment shaped by chance with a rough likeness to a human figure. 
Later in the day I told her to show her mother the baby, and she 
came at once from the other side of the room and pointed out the 
same ornament. The 559th day she was amusing herself by bump- 
ing her chin with the handle of a large bronze bell, and did it a lit- 
tle too hard ; she broke out into a wail about the "mom," which I 
made out to be a. complaint that the "man" had injured her, the 
handle being a quaint little figure, not very obvious as such. . The 
563d, she plucked at tufts of red zephyr with which a quilt was 
adorned, calling them roses; pulled out a scarlet shred, saying, 
"Leaf," and struck it on her hand, saying, "Snap." This she 
repeated ; and several times afterward recurred to it. I could not 
make out whether she really supposed the tuft a rose and the 
shred of zephyr a leaf that could be snapped, or was making believe, 
but I thought the latter. She accepted at this time with pleasure 
the shadow "rabbits" her grandmother made her. Her recognition of 
the first statue she had seen, the 597th day, as a "white man" (it 
was in fact a female figure, partly nude) has been mentioned. 

In all her behavior toward pictures and other representations, I 
was chiefly struck first by the ease with which the general purport 
of such things was accepted, after it had once dawned on her, — the 
primitive stage of development, so,to speak, at which pictures were 
comprehensible and interesting ; and next by the extent to which 
outline made up the representation, and the small part played by 



78 University of California. [Vol. i. 

size, color, or even the shading to imitate sohd form. We were 
never able to see that there was any distinct preference for colored 
pictures over uncolored, and those first recognized were very much in 
outline ; before the eighteenth month she recognized at once as a cock 
an impression not a quarter of an inch long on a white stamp or 
seal ; in the nineteenth month she was especially interested in some 
old-fashioned children's books with their small, crude woodcuts, 
and little advertising cuts pleased quite as much as fine colored 
plates. It surprised me that she recognized trees and flowers very 
early, even slightly indicated in black and white, — the color plays so 
much part with us in the idea of trees especially. Analogous to 
this was her calling little seedling trees "tee" at first sight, as she 
did in the eighteenth month; yet the word had been learned in 
connection Avith large branching trees. In the same month, 539th 
day, she pointed to a twig of pink Japanese maple in a glass, cry- 
ing, "Tee!" and added, " Ba ! " — a tree in a vase. Here was 
neither color, size, nor surroundings to fix it as a tree ; yet in a 
sense, in her absence of knowledge as to what a twig was, she was 
right enough. The only instances in which color seemed noticed 
more than form were a disposition about the eighteenth month to 
confuse her aunt's house and a neighbor's, quite different in form 
and surroundings but of somewhat similar color ; the recognition 
of individiial varieties of flowers in colored plates only, as noted 
above; on the 586th day a failure to recognize an actual flower 
thoroughly familiar (a sweet pea), in a novel variety, quite different 
in color from those that she knew ; and the recognition of an 
orange-shaped lemon, mentioned above under Color. 

The roughness of resemblance necessary for recognition — the 
mere suggestion required — struck me over and over. This was 
analogous to what I observed both as to form and color, and seemed 
a consistent trait of all her sight recognition ; it coincides also with 
what I have observed of other young children, and repeatedly heard 
from those who have them in charge. 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 79 



9. Interest in Seeing;. 

Up to the 25th day, though the baby doubtless experi- 
enced a certain comfort in lighted surfaces or bright points, there 
was nothing I could call interest ; on that day her former staring 
at faces assumed an appearance of attention and effort, and a still 
livelier look was called to her face by a surface of lighted color, as 
noted above. Thereafter till the fourth month, faces were the objects 
of her almost sole attention; in the fifth week she began to smile in 
gazing at them ; I first saw this on the thirty-second day, and was 
told that she not only smiled but chuckled in gazing at her father's 
face the same day. From now on her gaze was constantly fixed on 
our faces as we talked and played with her, sometimes with demon- 
strations of intensest interest.pantingbreath, movements of hands and 
feet, and occasional smiles. How much of this interest was excited 
by face and how much by voice I cannot say. On the forty-second 
day her mother saw similar demonstrations over a spot of sunlight 
on the white spread, but I never saw them over anything but faces 
till the third month, sixty-third day, when she showed like excite- 
ment over strips of color; but there were instances of an earnest 
gaze at color in the meantime, as mentioned above. 

In the fourth month, besides the interest in faces, and the few 
incidents of interest in objects related above, especially in daffodils, 
looking about the room became very absorbing. This looking 
about, begun early in the second month, had come toward the end 
of the third to be accompanied by a look of surprise. This sur- 
prise now became very striking. Held above one's head, instead of 
showing gayety, the baby would look around silently, as though 
absorbed in the novel appearance of things (fourteenth week ; but a 
photograph of the seventh month shows something of the same 
expression when thus lifted up). She would iiispect the familiar room 
for many minutes, looking fixedly at object after object, till the 
whole field of vision was reviewed, then turn her head quickly, and 
examine another section; when this was done, she would fret till 
carried to another place, and there renew her inspection of the room 
in its changed aspect, — all this with an expression of surprise and 



8o University of California. [Vol. i. 

eao^erness, eyes wide and brows raised. The window and its out- 
look were included in these surveys. The habit was striking from 
the fourteenth week through the seventeenth, most of all in the 
fifteenth ; it then declined, but would recur in a new room. Thus 
on the 141st day and about that time, taken into the kitchen she 
would look out of the window, then whirl round to look inside, 
and wish to be taken to different quarters of the room, just as 
earlier in the more familiar rooms. During these inspections 
occasionally an object, as sunshine on the carpet, would attract 
special attention, and even excite to movements of arms and pant- 
ino-. Yet after these close surveys for weeks, she would occasion- 
ally discover an object, as 1 19th day, a pink and white fan that had 
long hung in a corner, apparently for the first time. 

Outdoors till near the close of the seventeenth week she gazed 
happily around without fixing her look on any object; on the 
119th day, she leaned forward to see me pluck something, and 
thereafter soon learned to watch objects outdoors as in, but never 
showed the surprise and curiosity. 

After the fifth month, though she continued to look about with 
interest, the surprised look, eager staring, and quick turns of 
her head were rare. The inspection of her surroundings with 
more or less look of surprise, was usually renewed in a new 
room, or an old one from which she had been for some time 
absent; and late in the sixth month (173d day) when I took 
her into the tankhouse and woodshed, places unlike any she had 
seen before, the look of extreme surprise, even astonishment, jaw 
dropped, eyes wide, and quick, eager turns of head, were as notice- 
able as ever. I stopped by a glass door to let her look out; she 
stared happily for about ten minutes, and when she saw her moth-er 
pass, going into the garden, and when two of the family passed 
through the shed behind her, she looked at each, turning her head and 
following their movements with deep attention. I then instead of 
carrying her back into the familiar room as she had come, through 
the kitchen, stepped across the veranda and re-entered by another 
door; it appeared to surprise her very much to find herself back 
there, and she would pay no attention to anything else till she had 
examined the room and everything in it as if it were novel. 

During the third and fourth month, and I think until she had 



Shinn.] Tlie Developjiient of a Cliild. 8i 

begun to roll about, when laid on her stomach, she always lifted her 
head high, and gazed around with a pleased and interested air, as if 
she saw things in a new aspect. 

So incessantly was she occupied with some activity in seeing 
that when on the 131st day I found her lying happy and wide 
awake, not looking at anything especially, I thought it worth not- 
ing; still I do not suppose it could have been by any means a solitary 
instance. 

In the fifth month, while grasping to some extent displaced her 
interest in looking, her attention to those things that did catch her 
eye was more persistent and absorbing ; 133d day, she caught sight 
of a brass caster on a chair, and remained gazing at it so fixedly 
that she could not be induced to resume nursing; her mother 
would bring her face to the breast and she would turn it back to 
stare at the caster. Finally her mother changed position so that 
the baby lost sight of the attractive object, and after looking about, 
at the fire, the high light on the coal-hod, etc., she consented to nurse 
again. She was interested in her toes when they were showed her, 
and looked for minutes from one scarlet-tipped sock to the other. 
She watched people and things long and earnestly; 134th day the 
whole process of setting the table, and later of clearing it, without a 
deviation of attention ; the bobbing of her little shadow head on the 
wall, when her mother began to put her to sleep ; 1 36th day was all 
the morning perfectly content to sit watching us hurry about, arrang- 
ing rooms for guests; during the whole presence of one guest, whose 
attentions pleased her, the baby watched her, hardly having eyes off 
her, perhaps a half hour. When thus absorbed in looking at any- 
th ng it was almost impossible to divert her. 

The next week — the twentieth — her desire to seize interfered 
with her willingness to gaze long at anything ; when the table was 
cleared, she desired the articles, and wished to get hold of her toes 
as soon as she saw them. On the 141st day, however, she sat 
about half an hour at the window watching the Chinamen as 
they dug a trench, and other sights; and so at several other times. 
She was always interested in movements to and fro, especially if there 
was any bustle. The 158th day she sat for an hour without atten- 
tion from us, playing with papers and watching us clear out and 
assort a closet of them. The sixth month, 175th day, e.g., she 



82 University of California. [Vol. i. 

gazed awhile at her uncle writing, at her grandmother sorting 
eggs, then became absorbed in the Chinaman washing dishes, and 
stared at the process in breathless silence about fifteen minutes; 
when he left the dishes to take away her bath, she followed him 
with her eyes, so I carried her after him, and she watched him as 
he went through two rooms and carried out the bath, watched him 
through the windows while he emptied it, watched him back to the 
kitchen, and for some minutes longer as he washed the dishes. 

In the twenty-third week, she would lie and look pensively at a 
bright screen, e. g., and talk to it. 

In the second half-year, her pleasure and interest in seeing was 
so complicated with other growing bodily and mental activites, that 
I will mention here but a few instances of the simpler sort. 

From the seventh month through the year, the sight of animals 
interested her exceedingly; this was, however, complicated with a 
desire to seize. 199th and 200th day she was laid on a bed that had 
a high head with moulded figures; these held her gaze a longtime. 

In the eighth month, absorbed and attentive watching of new 
processes was noticeable, — e.g., thirty-second week, lighting the 
lamp (this interest was, however, stimulated by her father). In the 
thirty-third week, a Chinese toy, containing a moving turtle, caused 
for some days an especial interest, even to excitement. 

In the ninth month, wheeled in her carriage into new places, 
she was serious and deeply attentive to what she saw, though a lit- 
tle afraid (249th day); 257th day a spot of sunlight on the ceiling 
excited a marked demonstration ; 265th, she first looked up of her 
own accord to notice branches swaying in the wind, with surprise 
and interest in her expression; 271st, on a yacht, once looked over 
the side to watch for a little time the foam running by. 

Tenth month, 281st day, she discovered with a cry of joy and 
pointed to the sunlit tops of trees, perhaps forty feet tall and fifty 
feet away, and later (292d day) when on the lawn, she pointed from 
time to time to the tree tops, especially when yellow with the low 
sunlight, exclaiming with pleasure. On the 286th, she chanced to 
look where the sunlight brought out gilt figures on the ceiling; she 
smiled, pointed, then lifted both arms prettily toward it with laugh- 
ter and joyous exclamations; again on the 293d. During most of 
this month, she took great pleasure in standing at the window and 



Shinn.] TJie Development of a Child. 83 

looking out. She followed movements, e. g., sewing, with visible 
care and curiosity. When carried about the garden, she was satis- 
fied after being given a few flowers, and then was happy to be carried 
on, looking at her flowers and at the bright beds, crowing, murmur- 
ing, and laughing quietly with satisfaction; 285th day, delight in 
engines, especially in near approach, was first noted; this became a 
rapturous joy; and gave noticeable pleasure as late as the twentieth 
month. At just ten months she watched quietly, without offering 
to touch, but with absorbed attention, sitting on my lap, while I 
sealed and stamped letters. 

In the eleventh month, interest in the sights seen when driving, 
which had for weeks been growing, became very marked and joy- 
ous; she would nestle to us with murmurs of joy, give small shouts, 
lean to look at objects, utter syllables in joyous tones, smile and 
look up into our faces, clap and wave her hands; 317th day, from 
the bed in an upper room, she looked out of the window at a little 
distance, and overflowed with ejaculations of happiness at the 
spread of flowers and moving sunlit branches. Again, set down on 
the floor, shelooked out at the tops of walnut trees, now alone vis- 
ible, sunlit and moving, and cried out again and again with joy. She 
was much interested in looking down on her uncle from the window, 
and so thereafter. Her joy in standing at the usual window down- 
stairs continued: she would stand, watch, and laugh; the gardener 
would go by, occasionally the dog, — for the rest, she watched 
the trees, flowers, and birds. The 325th day she noticed a brown 
and white silk sofa pillow, pointing and reaching up toward it with 
many expressions of admiration. 

Part of the twelfth month she was absent, and my notes are 
meager ; in the fiftieth week she was deeply interested for a few days 
in watching the almond huller, but soon wished to get hold of and 
pull about the hulls. 

Of course there were all this time innumerable instances of 
interest in objects; these quoted come the nearest to simple interest 
in seeing; and in many of these the intellectual element is consider- 
able. In the looking on while things were done I saw from the 
tenth month a clear curiosity and effort to understand in her look 
and manner; and from much farther back this feeling must have 
been gradually increasing. 



84 University of California. [Vol. i. 

In the second year, while her interest in sights multipHed, it is 
still more impossible to separate it from rrxore distinctively intel- 
lectual interest. The pleasure in gazing at the moon already related 
under Fixation, was a comparatively simple one. The principal 
interests falling even in part under the head of Sight during most of 
the second year, have been described under Color, Form, and 
Pictures. Most of her occupations were active, not receptive. I 
note in the twenty-first month that to sit without an occupation, 
merely looking about, even in a new place, seems impossible to her, 
though sometimes — rarely — she will remain still some minutes 
absorbed in a special sight. In this month, being once on the city 
street, she stared a good deal in at windows, and liked to stop along 
the streets to see what was to be seen. As an example of the rare 
instances of silent attention, in the twenty-third month, 691st day, 
she was silent, watching the men unload drying frames, perhaps five 
minutes, then went to see them dipping prunes, and watched in 
silence perhaps twenty minutes, then began to examine, comment, 
and touch. 

Her own consciousness of the act of seeing, as shown by her 
use of words, may here be spoken of. The first one she showed 
clear evidence of understanding was look, in the sixteenth month. 
She understood a number of verbs then, and if asked, "How does 
Ruth eat? walk ? cough ? " would illustrate. The S03d day I said 
to her idly, " How does Ruth look f" — when to my surprise she ran 
into the middle of the room, and thrusting head and body forward, 
. chin up, bent a dramatically exaggerated gaze before her. This 
experiment was repeated several times, with the same result. 
Within the month she began to use the word. The first time I 
heard her use "see," was in the eighteenth month, $226. day, when 
she shouted with joy at going out to see the moon, "Moo"! . 
'Ky! . . . Baby! . . . Shee ! " Her mother had heard 
it at least a week earlier. She had certainly understood both 
look and see long before she used them. They did not come 
very early among verbs, for over thirty of these were used before 
any verb of seeing. In the twenty-first month, 613th day, as 
she stood and watched a butterfly, she looked at me earnestly and 
said, " Wa," repeatedly; I could not interpret it except as "Watch," 



Shinn.] Tlie Development of a Child. 85 

probably referring to a story often read her in which a boy watched 
a bird. 

Three days later, asked, "What does Ruth do with her eyes ?" 
she answered, " Look." As this answer had never been taught, or 
suggested in any way that I could learn, it is evident that she had 
by this time referred the sensation of sight to her eyes; or at least 
had become conscious of directing her eyes toward objects in order 
to see them, for observe that she said " Look," not " See." 



10. Interpretation. 

In adopting this heading from Professor Preyer, I have not 
used it just as he does. I wish to include here only those simplest 
interpretations by which we translate our oare sensations of sight 
into intelligent seeing, and not those in which some significance 
of a sight is perceived, through association and inference — as when 
the sight of a cloak and cap, e. g., wakes expectation of going out. 

Of such fundamental estimates of direction, distance, form, re- 
lations of bodies in space, etc., many instances have been given 
already in connection with other topics. Some comments and 
additional instances follow. 

The striking examination of a room from different quarters, as 
if to comprehend the changes in distance, relative position, and form 
of objects, was the earliest noticeable effort at interpretation, — very 
interesting to see, and giving a curious hint of the immense amount 
of such cerebral work necessary before the world can take orderly 
shape to a baby's sight. Preyer suggests that the length of a child's 
arm must be its first measure of distance; I should not say so, for 
even before it can seize it has repeatedly had opportunity to meas- 
sure the distance across the room by being carried to or from ob- 
jects whose appearance it is familiar with; it sees them in every 
possible position and at every distance, and in the case of my niece 
these changes were viewed with the intensest curiosity and effort to 
comprehend them in some fashion. Again, this has a bearing on 
Froebel's suggestion that the regular training of the sense of form 
should be begun with the young infant by the systematic move- 



86 University of California. [Vol. i. 

merits of forms before it in the order of geometric simplicity; the 
fact that the child of its own accord, as it is moved about the room, 
takes a vast number of observations on the complex forms of furni- 
ture, etc., and most of all on the living forms about it, as they ad- 
vance, recede, turn, seems likely to defeat the purpose of inducting 
it by systematic degrees into the conceptions of form. These 
spontaneous observations did not begin, however, in the case of my 
niece, till the fourth month, and might perhaps be anticipated in 
the third by more systematic observation of simpler objects and 
movements. 

In the fifth month, I32d day, I swung the baby on my foot, and 
as she had then begun to look to our faces for sympathy in pleasure 
or trouble, she looked up to her grandmother, who sat beside me; 
and as I sat a little to the rear, saw the back and side of her grand- 
mother's head. Her face took on a puzzled look, and she watched 
the head with great steadiness till her grandmother turned and 
made some sound to amuse her. This she received with a look of 
great surprise; her jaw fell, and her brows were raised; and this 
was repeated several times. I then began to swing her on my foot 
again, and at each pause she would gaze up at her grandmother till 
she turned and did something to amuse her, then would be satisfied. 
I thouo-ht from her behavior that she was puzzled to identify the 
part of the head she saw with the face she expected to see when 
she first looked up, having known her grandmother was beside her 
when we sat down. This also suggests that when she gave up her 
eao-er study of a room grown familiar, it might have been because 
she had become able to identify the principal objects from any side. 
About a week after she was so puzzled by the back of her grand- 
mother's head, 141st day, I came up behind her grandfather's chair 
with her in my arms, and looking down at the top of his head, she 
set up a cry of desire to be taken, apparently knowing him from 
that point of view without hesitation. 

The sense of touch was not used to supplement that of sight in 
investigating the properties of bodies, until grasping was very well 
established; the first desire to touch and hold objects seemed vague 
and instinctive, but from the middle of the fifth month to the end of 
the year, there was a growth in disposition to use the senses jointly, 
with more and more definite curiosity and investigating spirit. 



Shinn.] TJlc Development of a Child. 87 

Some interpretations as to place and direction more complex 
than those already mentioned, follow. The disappearance of peo- 
ple from a room, and reappearance outside the window, seemed to 
cost her much perplexity; the first time I noticed this, was near 
the end of the fourth month, when from a place that commanded 
view of both inside of door and outer step, through a window, she 
watched her grandfather disappear and reappear on the outside, 
with a look of great surprise (119th day). This 'was two weeks 
before the incident related above (page 23) of her correct estimate 
of the place to which I might be expected to have moved across the 
room, but that was a simpler case; in this, the intervention of the 
door and wall, which apparently closed the view, was the puzzle. 

Early m the 6th month, 156th day, she desired som^ flowers in 
her mother's hand, and to hide them from her, her mother tucked 
them under the carriage blanket at her feet; but the baby seemed to 
know where they were, and leaned forward, plucking at the blanket 
and complaining. Yet it was the tenth month before she became 
habitually able to trace up objects which she had seen put out of 
sight. 

Late in the sixth month, 175th day, in another room from the 
one where she had become somewhat familiar with the passing of 
people through the door and reappearing outside, I was surprised 
to see her turn to the window to look for someone who had passed 
out of the door as she watched him ; then, as he passed that win- 
dow, to the next one, as if understanding that he would pass by 
that. I concluded that this was pure inference from experience, for 
a week later, the last day of the sixth month, she turned and looked 
expectantly from the window on seeing her mother leave the room 
by a door on the- opposite side, which led upstairs. In the eighth 
month she seemed to understand clearly where people would be 
seen when they had passed out of the door first mentioned, and 
turning to look, or waving adieu, became habitual ; but at no time 
in the first year did her understanding of the other doors and win- 
dows seem to be clear. 

Her experience in the woodshed late in the sixth month (page 
80), made a very heavy demand on her sense of locality and direc- 
tion; and her deep attention to familiar persons moving in part in 
places not unfamiliar, but seen from a new quarter, and most of all 



88 University of California. 'Vol. i. 

her surprise in finding that a new road from a strange place brought 
her into the old room, shows that she had some sort of precon- 
ception of local relations, however vague, to be jarred. The expe- 
rience is one that, in a more definite psychological form, I can 
parallel from my own memory. 

In selecting the foregoing notes from my record, I have ex- 
cluded much that relates more or less nearly to Sight, wishing to 
keep as nearly as possible to the subject of the mere sense percep- 
tion, and the closely related eye-movements, interpretations, etc. 
It is absolutely impossible, however, in recording incidents as they 
occurred, to preserve a rigid classification of topics, for the grow- 
ing powers of the child show themselves all together in the most 
complex manner, especially after the first year. 

MiLicENT Washburn Shinn. 



MEASUREMENTS AND HEALTH IN THE THIRD YEAR, 

The child's height at two years was 33 inches, her weight 28 
pounds. At three years, her height was 36^ inches, her weigh •. 
was set down at 34^ pounds. I did not see this weight taken, and 
as one month earlier she weighed 32 pounds, and one month later 
33/4, while her growth to all appearances was uniform, I have little 
doubt that 33 pounds was nearer the true weight. Monthly records 
were not strictly kept: so far as they go, they indicate a fairly uni- 
form growth, with no long stationary periods, and no decrease. 

The child's health was in general robust, and her spirits high. 
Some half-dozen slight derangements, — cold or indigestion, — are 
recorded. They usually affected her spirits very little ; but a few 
instances of peevishness are noted. For example, in the last week 
of the twenty-fifth month, after having had a cold for two weeks, 
she whimpered one day at trifles, — because her sleeves did not 
suit her, and because her mother brushed her hair back; and hear- 
ing her father go upstairs from another room, where he had been 
occupied without reference to her, she whined unreasonably, " I 
don't want papa to go upstairs," and put up her lip to cry. In the latter 
part of the twenty-seventh month, two molars were cut: she was 
noticeably joyous during these very weeks, running, frisking, shout- 
ing, and trying to sing; but a few days before the first of the teeth 
came through, she surprised us one day by crying clamorously at 
trifles. 

From the last week of the thirtieth month to the latter part of 
the thirty-fifth, I was impressed with a vague diminution of spirits; 
the child showed less good will, less spontaneity, and though much 
of the time she was running over with a desire of noise and motion, 
jumping about, shouting, and squealing, she seemed to us rather 
noisy than merry, and we often noticed a dull expression of face. 
During much of the thirty-fourth month she was quiet, willing to 
sit on our laps, and said it made her tired to run. She seemed in 
excellent health all this time, and her muscular strength was good, 
for in the middle of the thirty-fifth month she for some minutes 
dragged about in a toy wagon, at a run, a large, heavy boy twenty- 

(8q) 



go University of California. [Vol. i. 

one months old, — on a smooth tiled surface, to be sure. In the 
latter part of the thirty-fifth month, I noticed increasingly happy 
.spirits, more frequent laughter, and a charmingly spontaneous gay- 
ety. The highest health and spirits continued to the end of the 
year and beyond. 

This coincides with my observations in the second year, the 
months of less brightness being the same, — from latter March or 
early April to September. Yet there is no depressing spring or 
summer heat in this climate, and April and May are not warmer 
than September and October; while the summer months are those 
of her most constant outdoor life. During the first year also I 
noticed a change of expression, — a more bright and joyous look 
and manner, — as the fall months came on; and photographs of 
that year illustrate the difference. 



SIGHT IN THE THIRD YEAR. 
I. Sensibility to Light. 

In the winter (twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh months) the child 
was quick to notice the change of hght when the sun broke through 
the clouds. As we sat at lunch, in the sixty-fourth week, e. g., it 
broke dimly through, and she shouted jubilantly, "Sunshine! See 
sunshine!" 

An instance of observing and comparing brightnesses occurred in 
the thirty-sixth month, when, looking at the evening sky, she 
observed, "Two stars, — but one is darker than the other." It was 
odd that deficiency of light, rather than brightness, should be the 
means of comparison. 

2. Color. 

I saw no decided signs of preference in color in the third year. 
Early in the twenty-fifth month, I thought violet somewhat favored, 
and red disliked, yet in this same month the child would insist that 
I button my shoes with a little red-handled button hook, instead of 
either a black or a silver one, and was interested in red leaves. In 
stringing the Hailmann beads, the order in which she took them 
was determined by form, not color. During the daffodil season, 
from the middle of the twenty-eighth month on for some si.y weeks, 
she hung about the flowers, saying, "Those your daffodils! " hardly 
able to keep her hands off them; and I was told that in making a 
scrapbook about this time she always preferred yellow pictures : 
but in the thirtieth month I noticed that neither form nor color of 
flowers seemed to affect her preference, — the flowers that interested 
her were the rare or novel ones, while those she was allowed to pick 
freely, as the abundant showy nasturtiums, were treated with in- 
difference. One day late in this month, in looking over many 
colored plates from the London Garden^ she showed admiration 
only when we came to bright pink flowers. 

Her solicitude as to the gown I should put on continued, espe- 
cially if she was in the room while I was dressing: she usually ob- 

(91) 



g2 University of California. [Vol. i. 

jected to brown, and oftenest wished me to wear the lemon and 
black challis slip that had been her favorite in the second year. 
Once, early in the twenty-sixth month, when I had told her I could 
not wear the "yellow dress," but must put on a brown one, she 
asked if I would not wear a yellow ribbon, and turned to a drawer 
whence she had once seen me take one. In the thirty-first month, 
comincr to my room for the first meeting after two weeks' absence, 
her only greeting was, " Will you put on your yellow dress, aunty?" 
I put on instead a dark red one, which she had not seen; she said 
she liked it, but when asked which she liked best, said the yellow 
one. Except in the fondness for this gown, I saw no consistent 
preference for yellow; and I think it probable that some other 
trait besides color had taken her fancy in this case. Among her 
own dresses she consistently preferred those with jackets, guimpes, 
sashes, or other decoration, whatever the color. In the twenty- 
ninth month, white seemed to please her best among plain slips ; in 
the thirty-sixth month I noticed that among these pink was always 
chosen, and her mother told me that at the beginning of the thirty- 
first month the child said to her, " Mamma, when you get little I 
going to get you a pink dress and a pink sunbonnet." 

Her discrimination of color was so far complete by the end of 
the second year that I kept no notes concerning it in the third, 
except a few as to difficult discriminations ; and even these are not 
a full record, but only instances by way of example, Thus at the 
end of the twenty-sixth month she called a lavender card " violet," 
without hesitation; and looking at a very dark olive book, called it 
(as many grown people would) "black," — then, "No, that ain't 
black; that is black," pointing to a really black book. A few days 
later, just at the beginning of the twenty-seventh month, I asked 
her, as she looked out of the window at sunset, "What color are 
the hills?" and she answered rightly, "Violet." Late in the same 
month, she called very pale lavender blossoms "white:" but when 
white was placed beside them she became doubtful, and said she 
did not know what color; it was really very near to white. A few 
days later, when I called a dark blue book with a shade of purple, 
"blue," she criticised me, calling it "violet." Of parti-colored books 
she would say, "That yellow and white;" "That red and white;" 



shinn.] TJie Developjnent of a Cliild. 03 

once, " That part brown and part 'nother kind brown," which was 
right. She has not been formally taught any distinction between 
the many and various tones called brown, but to her "What's 
that?-" we have often had to answer, "Another kind of brown," 
having just told her something quite different was brown. She 
seemed to comprehend more or less the tract of color covered by 
the word. A week later, early in the twenty-eighth month, in put- 
ting back books on the shelf, she arranged a very light brown with 
the white ones; a light sage green she asked about as if it were a 
new color, and when pressed to say herself what it was, answered 
"Green" reluctantly, as if she did not think it really was so. 
About a week later, she was told she should see some yellow fish, 
and was shown goldfish; she called them orange, and presently 
asked where the yellow fish were. In the first week of the thirtieth 
month, she found an envelope in which some cards intended to 
connect the six leading colors had been placed, with other difficult 
tones; she wished to hand these to me, naming them. For the 
most part, she named each one rightly, according to the pure color 
it most resembled. One between green and blue she hesitatingly 
called blue. "What else does it look like?" I said. — "Green." 
The one between yellow and orange she could see only as orange. 

Interest in color increased in this year. The following incidents 
are mere examples of the way in which it was over and over shown: — 

Late in the twenty-fifth month, seeing a break in the clouds, the 
child pointed with a cry, "See! Blue sky!" A month or two 
before she had seemed entirely obtuse to the difference between sky 
and clouds when it was pointed out. At just twenty-six months, 
she pointed to the west after sunset, crying. See! See! Pretty 
red sky ! " Late in the twenty-eighth month, after hesitantly giving 
correct answers when asked about the yellow and gray markings of 
a cat, she volunteered, " The fire is yellow; but the coals are black." 
Late in the thirtieth month: "My trowel has a yellow spot on it. 
Where did that yellow spot come from ? " Two days later, she was 
looking silently out of the window. " What are you thinking 
about?" I asked. "I looking at those white cherry blossoms," 
she answered. In the middle of the thirty-first month, she cried to 
me with surprise that here was a piece of yellozv soap, a color that, 



94 University of California. [Vol. i. 

it seems, she had not seen in soap. The same day, picking up 
fallen eucalyptus leaves, she commented, ' ' Here 's a red leaf, — - and 
a green one." In the middle of the thirty-second month, picking a 
strawberry, " That is red on one side, and green on one side." 
Early in the thirty-third month, watching her kitten, " Miss Gracie 
did n't give me a green kitty. Men don't make green kitties." 
Late in the thirty-sixth month, "These strawberries are red, like 
I are." — " Like you? " I asked. — " Red like my dress are." In 
the thirty-fifth month she first tried to compose a story, which was 
about little girls going to school; and in the thirty-sixth dwelt much 
on a romance about certain imaginary parrots : the color of the 
buckets carried by the schoolgirls and the colors of the parrots 
were always specified. 

On the other hand, she seemed all the year as much interested 
in small uncolored pictures as in the most gayly colored ones. 
Once, late in the twenty-eighth month, she insisted that some curved 
figures in a Persian embroidery, shaped like slugs but of totally 
different color, — bright red, blue, and green, — were slugs. In 
the thirty-sixth month, a curious incident showed that she had 
been able to look at a color many times without becoming conscious 
of it. She had been away from home all day, and as we drove into 
the home grounds, after she had already recognized that she was at 
home, her father confused her by asking, " Did you ever see this 
house before?" She looked it over, saying mechanically, "No," 
then cried suddenly, " It is a red house! " and repeated the excla- 
mation once or twice; then after a pause, " Manmia, it was n't red 
before." Yet she had all her life played about the house, driven 
from and to it, recognized it on return, and had never seen it of any 
other color than the decided Indian red she now first recognized. 

Of the instances of observation of color and interest in it men- 
tioned above, one or two show something like a pleasure in color 
that might be called sesthetic. I watched for a disposition to 
arrangement of objects by color, as having some rudiment of 
aesthetics. At twenty-eight months old the child began to take 
pains when putting back books on the shelves to put all the white 
ones together, imitating for the first time the practice I had observed 
for her benefit for many months; those with white backs and col- 



shinn.] The Development of a CJiild. 95 

ored sides were ranged with the white ones. She did not keep up 
the practice long. In the thirtieth month, having her color tablets 
again for the first time in many weeks, she asked, " What can I do 
with them ?" and was interested in putting them into piles by color, 
which she had never cared to do before ; with my help she did it 
pretty well. It did not prove a lasting interest, however. In the 
thirty-third month her chief interest in the sticks of the kinder- 
garten eighth gift was to sort them by colors. Once I laid them 
in a spectrum of broad bands, while she handed me the colors. 
When I had completed the spectrum, she surveyed it and com- 
mented, " The green is between the blue and the yellow." Encour- 
aged, she went on and in like manner named the position of each 
band of color. 

I thought for a while that some sense of harmony in color was 
becoming apparent. Her mother had taught her that her pink 
sunbonnet must be worn with pink dresses, etc., and she was quite 
punctilious about it. Early in the twenty-fifth month, sent to get a 
sunbonnet, she was a long time gone and then came back with a 
brown silk cap she had sought out instead of any of her sunbonnets, 
saying she must wear this because she had on a buff dress. A 
month later, after asking me to put on a yellow ribbon with a brown 
gown, she added, " No, — brown ribbon." Again, a month later, she 
pulled off my yellow ribbon: "You mustn't wear that ribbon- 
You must wear brown ribbon, because you have brown dress." At 
the end of the thirtieth month a black lace hat that I put on when 
wearing the black and lemon slip she liked, displeased her, and she 
said, " I don't like you to wear that black hat with a yellow dress." 
This apparent interest in combination of colors never came to any- 
thing, and must have been mere imitation; and months later, when 
she had a fancy for dressing her dolls in sundry ribbons and rags, 
her disregard of color discords was absolute, — no combination was 
sought, and none whatever proscribed. 



^6 University of California. [Vol. i. 



3. Form. 

My notes for the third year supply a {^^ instances of discrimina- 
tion of plane forms, which may be added to those already given in 
the record of the second year. 

Early in the twenty -fifth month, I was told, the child called a 
square with the corners cut off a " round square." In the latter 
part of the month, playing with a string of the large Hailmann 
beads, she laid it in a circle; and when I pointed out the figure, she 
took up the suggestion and interested herself in making circles 
over and over. She then laid it down doubled on itself, and called 
it an oblong. 

In the last week of the twenty-sixth month she attempted to 
make an O, and then, surveying it, observed, " That ain't quite O." 
It was, as always, irregular; she now seemed for the first time to 
feel this, was visibly dissatisfied, and after trying once or twice more 
asked me to make an O, and gave an exclamation of satisfaction at 
mine. She was fond of scribbling at this time. In the middle of 
the twenty-seventh month she struck the idea of drawing an 
oblong by drawing parallel lines and then shorter cross lines, I 
saw her do this first on the slate, and so was not able to preserve 
the drawing. In the evening of the same day, she remarked that 
she was going to draw an oblong, and repeated the method; but 
drifting away from her intention went on to multiply the cross lines. 
The day after this she made her first attempt at pictorial drawing ; 
I shall not speak here, however, of drawing further than it illustrates 
her comprehension of simple geometric form. 

She not infrequently asked us to draw these figures for her; 
once, late in the twenty-seventh month, she asked me to "write lit- 
tle oblong," and kept me at it with grave interest till I had made 
over fifty oblongs, which she wished me to range in rows on the 
paper. 

Near the end of the thirty-second month, I gave her a box of 
the little colored sticks used in kindergartens, and showed her how 
to lay them in squares. A few days later she tried to make a square 
herself, but finding it not easy, wished me to doit, while she handed 
me the sticks. She was especially interested in seeing me lay as 



Shinn.] 



The Development of a Child. 



97 




3. ^ 

I, 2. 56th week. Circle and ellipse. 

3. 56th week. Apparently meant for oblong, yet the child gave no sign 
that she recognized or intended it as such. It is entirely unlike the other draw- 
ings or scribblings of this period. 

4. 56th week. Ellipses and circle, her usual method of drawing, — with a 
continuous line, one figure after another. 



98 



University of California. 



[Vol. I 




5. 56th week. First attempt at imitating writing, — done with a careful, 
niggling motion, unlike the scribblings or figure drawings, while she said 
slowly, as she had heard us say in writing her name to amuse her, " R-u t-h." 

6. 58th week. This figure began with the aimless scribbling (see Fig. 7) 
seen in the lower part; but having accidentally discovered a triangle amid her 
lines, the child began to alter their character, in order to produce more tri- 
angles; and later scribblings took more the character of the upper part of this 
figure, and triangles were from time to time sought among them. 




7- 58th week. Typical aimless scribbling of that date. 

8. 6ist week. Having made the four-cornered figure, the child cried out 
that it was a square. It may have been accidentally made. In the two 
attempts at circles intersecting it, note how nearly the line comes back to 
meet itself. 

The child was entirely indifferent to making her figures clear and sepa- 
rate, and constantly drew them over each other, as in this instance. As origi- 
nally drawn, several other figures crossed these three. 

9. 62d week. The child, scribbling, cried to me that she had made an 
oblong, and showed me the upper figure (A) in this group. The other figures 
in it were all made in attempts to repeat the oblong. After making B, she ex- 
claimed that it was a triangle. 

10. 63d week, oblong. 
/ 100 ) 



TJie Development of a Child. 



lOI 




II. Square, oblong, enipse and circle, 99th week 

The inferiority of forms drawn in the thirty-fifth month to those drawn 
earlier seems partly due to the fact that she had not been handling the tablets 
for some time; pardy to more consciousness and effort, — she drew with less 
free hand. 

That the difference between square and oblong, circle and ellipse, was dis- 
tinct in her mind before she began to draw was evident by the way she went to 
work. 



I02 University of California. [Vol. i. 

iai'ge squares as possible, or dse one within another with sides 
parallel. She was occupied at least an hour thus, and for some 
weeks took mo;e or less interest in seeing forms made with sticks. 
About the middle of the thirty-third month, making a square for 
her, I asked her as usual to hand me four sticks. She selected four 
of the longest ones, then handed me another, saying, " Take five 
sticks, aunty; make me a big, big square." When I told her I 
could not make her a square with five, she seemed utterly uncom- 
prehending. I then showed her the figure they made, and had her 
count the sides; she admitted that it was not a square, but was 
silent and seemed puzzled. 

She did not show the marked interest of the second year in 
recognizing plane forms about her, but used their names easily on 
occasion ; e. g., she spoke of the stamp in the corner of a sheet of 
commercial note paper as "that ellipse." 

A few notes on solid form also were kept during the year. Early 
in the twenty- fifth month the child called a rectangular prism an 
"oblong cylinder." Late in the twenty-sixth she accepted readily 
a description of a stovepipe as a cylinder; and by the twenty-ninth 
month I thought she had the idea of the cylinder, and still more of 
the ball, fairly well generalized, — though nothing like as well as 
that of the plane figures. The cube she could not recognize except 
in the blocks and Hailmann beads with which she had been taught; 
a cubical box, for instance, never suggested the cube to her. Indeed, 
I have neither note nor memory of ever hearing her spontaneously 
recognize any solid form in the objects about her. In the middle of 
the thirtieth month I once asked her what shape her balloon was. 
"I don't know." — "Cube, or cylinder, or ball?" I asked. — "Not 
cube and cylinder, — ball., aunty." The same day I gave her the 
kindergarten "second gift," and in this she recognized the three 
forms at once. About the middle of the thirty-fifth month, I asked 
her what shape her arm was; she considered carefully, and said it 
was a cylinder. Next day I asked her the shape of the branches of 
a tree in which the typical shape is unusually apparent, and again after 
consideration she answered, "Cylinder." In the thirty-sixth month 
I cautioned her, "If you should drop your ball out of the buggy, 
the wheel might run over it." — "And make it a cy'der," she said, 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 103 

— a somewhat remarkable suggestion, as she had not been told 
anything like this. (Even in the fourth year, her idea of the cylin- 
der is not altogether general; for when she was about thirty-nine 
months old someone asked her the shape of some cylindrical blocks 
shorter than their diameter, a novel form to her, and she at once 
resorted to the test of rolling them, and finding they would roll, 
answered that they were cylinders.) 

Two or three times in the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth months 
she selected the Hailmann beads according to form by their feeling, 
as in the second year, without difficulty. 

At the beginning of the year, in stringing and playing with the 
beads, she preferred the cylinders and cared least for the cubes; 
though she asked for the beads under the name of "cubes." In a 
few days, however, she began to ask for them as "my little cubes 
and cylinders." During the twenty-sixth month she would almost 
always select and lay aside, or hand to me, the balls, then amuse 
herself with the rest; this probably because the balls were trouble- 
some in rolling away, and could not be piled. Up to the middle 
of this month she took much interest in the beads, sometimes string- 
ing them, sometimes piling, sometimes assorting a little ; after this 
she ceased to care much for them; in the latter part of the twenty- 
sixth month, however, she played with them again for several days, 
and in stringing made unmistakable choice of balls first, then cylin- 
ders, then cubes, — once saying as she began, "First the balls, then 
the cylinders, then the cubes." 



4. Pictures. ' 

I have frequent notes of interest in pictures during the early 
months of the year, but none from the thirtieth to the thirty-fifth 
(April — July). In the fall months, the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth, 
the interest revived. The freedom of outdoor occupation during the 
summer months may have had to do with the loss of interest, but I 
cannot but note its coincidence with the period of lowered mental, 
or temperamental, brightness noted above. 

Pictures of animals were oftenest interesting; in the twenty- 
sixth month a book with fine plates of birds and flowers was for 



I04 University of California. [Vol. i. 

some days a favorite, attention being given entirely to the birds; 
later in the same month, a jeweler's catalogue was most interesting, 
and the uncolored cuts of watches, rings, pins, etc., were pored 
over day after day with many questions; in the twenty-eighth month 
a German picture book with a variety of pictures, all figures, and all 
telling some story, was favored; in the thirty -fifth and thirty-sixth 
months. Floss's "Das Kleine Kind" with its small uncolored cuts of 
babies' cribs, chairs, the methods of carrying them, etc., in various 
countries, occupied and interested the child deeply. I have men- 
tioned above my observation that small, uncolored pictures pleased 
her as well as the finest ones : the story told seemed the thing she 
cared for. That is to say, pictures were still merely a language to 
her; there was no evidence of an aesthetic side to her interest. She 
liked to be told a little about each picture, but not too much, — the 
story must be mainly told by the picture. 

I cannot doubt that in this third year she understood well enough 
the relation of pictures to real objects; yet once in the latter part of 
the twenty fifth month, in a movement of sympathy for a lamb 
caught in briars, she tried to lift a branch that lay across him in the 
picture, — whether forgetting for the moment that she could not, 
or merely as a demonstration of feeling. Again, in the last week of 
the thirty- fifth month, looking at a picture of a chamois defending 
her little one from an eagle, she asked anxiously if the mamma 
would drive the eagle away, and presently, quite simply and uncon- 
sciously, placed her little hand edgewise on the picture, so as to 
make a fence between the eagle and the chamois. 

Early in the twenty-sixth month, looking at the watches in the 
jeweler's catalogue she said, "Aunty, that some kind of a watch — 
to turn round and round" (as she had seen stem-winders wound). 
When a picture of a breaking lamp was explained to her, she looked 
at it seriously, then said, "That lamp chimney did broke." With 
these simple interpretations compare one of about the middle of the 
twenty-seventh month : "When Prudy has given that little leaf to 
that bird," — pointing, — "then she will get down and play with 
that kitty-cat." 

At twenty-six months she recognized from pictures, after a little 
consideration, a small carved elephant, about two feet high. In the 
last week of the year, she recognized the first living elephant and 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 105 

monkeys she had seen, and I think recognized camels also, all from 
pictures. Evidently size counted for little in her recognition/ 

5. Interest. 

Interest in seeing for its own sake, apart from some pretty dis- 
tinct mental occupation, was very rare in the third year. To sit and 
gaze quietly at anything was almost impossible to the child. Late 
in the twenty-eighth month she once sat quietly in my lap gazing 
out of the window, which my note comments on as "most unusual"; 
and again near the end of the thirtieth month. This second time I 
asked her, "What are you thinking about?" — "I looking at those 
white cherry blossoms," — a tree about 1 50 feet away. After a 
pause: "And I looking at those little baby roses," — a Banksia in 
heavy bloom. Once, early in the thirty-fifth month, I note her lik- 
ing for sitting with me at the window and looking out at the stars 
and dark trees. She was also always fond of being carried into the 
garden to see the moon, and had at such times a pleased but some- 
what hushed and awed manner. 

Besides what may be found in these incidents and those under 
Color, above, I saw little trace of aesthetic sensibility. The crude 
liking for ornamented dress seemed its most clear and consistent 
exhibition. Once in the thirty-fifth month I was told that the child 
displayed very unusual temper in the intensity of her desire to wear 
one of the favored dresses, and resisted having a plain one put on, 
with tears and outcry : "I will unbutton dis and take it off! " "I 
don't sink it is pitty ! " 

Some instances of expressions of admiration (not a frequent 
thing with her) would be more significant if it were possible to know 
how soon such words as "pretty," "beautiful," came to mean any- 
thing more to her than merely interesting or novel ; or how far they 
were used in sheer imitation. Thus near the end of the twenty -fifth 
month, she said, "How pretty that is!" of a brooch; in the twenty- 
seventh month, taken out on Christmas eve for a drive to an aunt's, 
she cried joyously, "O beautiful moon ! and star! " [O boo'fu' moo' ! 

^ That she could estimate size somewhat by the eye was evident on this occa- 
tsion: for the day after she saw these animals, I asked her how big the elephant 
ivas, — as big as grandpa's house? — "Oh, no!" she cried, as if at an absurdity. 
— "Bigger than grandpa's horses ? " — " Oh, yes ! " 



io6 University of California. [Vol. i. 

a' 'tar!] as soon as she saw them. Late in the thirtieth month, 
"How pretty that tree is!" late in the thirty-first, "I like to see so 
many roses!" at just thirty-one months old, driving over a bridge, 
"See the beautifully creek ! " [de booful-ly keek] ; in the thirty- fourth 
month, "F ve got the prettiest stone ! " In the thirty-fifth month she 
said of the doll she preferred, "I think this one is the prettiest;" 
again, "I like her best;" again, "I like her very much, because I 
love her so." The doll was not the prettiest, nor even the freshest, 
but an old cast-off one that had come into the child's hands; and 
was probably preferred simply because the most lately acquired. 
In the thirty-sixth month she was pleased with a book with conspic- 
uous cover decoration, and cried, "Here's a book wiv some pitty 
f'oways [flowers] on it!" 



HEARING. 
I. Sensibility to Sound. 

The first distinct evidence of hearing that I myself observed 
was on the 6th day : the baby cried out suddenly in her sleep when 
her father tore a paper sharply some four or five feet from her. I 
was told however that earlier, on the 3d or 4th day, she had started 
violently, while nursing, when a paper was torn some eight feet 
away and that several times on these days she started and cried out 
even in sleep, when a paper was rustled sharph^ as her father sat by 
the bed.' 

In the first week she did not seem to notice when on his return 
in the afternoon her father sat close by, reading aloud or talking; 
but in the second and third weeks she always became restless at 
this time. The more modulated voices of women who were in the 
room the rest of the time, appeared not to affect her at all. 

The sensitiveness to sound seemed variable; for on the 23d 
day, when I purposely rustled paper near the baby, it produced 
no clear reaction. On this same day, also, I struck an ordinary 
table call-bell several times, suddenly and sharply, at a distance 
of 2 feet from her head, and several times at i foot, without calling 
out any certain sign of hearing. Once at 6 inches and once at 3 
inches the stroke of the bell was followed by a sudden and distinct 
wink; but when nursing she did not wink, even when the bell was 
struck suddenly three inches from her ear. A large dinner bell at 
3 feet and 2 feet produced a slight quiver of the lids ; when it was 
struck at I foot she stopped nursing and threw one hand out. In 
these experiments, I took especial pains to allow a sufficient inter- 
val between the strokes of the bell, as I noticed that the decline 



1 Mrs. Eleanor Sharp gives me the note that the first sign of hearing observed 
in her boy was that on the 3d or 4th day he was disturbed by the rattling of a 
newspaper his father was reading. 

(107) 



io8 University of California. [Vol. i. 

of sensibility was very marked if the sounds followed at all 
closely. 

The 27th day, she showed no sign of hearing single notes on the 
piano, from the highest to the lowest. Yet she started at a 
hand-clap behind her head, and as her hair was unusually thick, 
it seems scarcely likely that she felt any puff of air. The next day 
she noticed chords; but of her attention to these I will speak 
under a separate head below. 

The 37th day, the servant brought in her bath, and set it down 
abruptly, so that the tin handles rattled. The baby, lying half 
asleep on my lap, started violently, with a cry so loud that it brought 
in her grandfather from two rooms away to see what was wrong ; 
she put up her lip with the first crying grimace she had ever made, 
and showed the effect of the fright in a disturbed face for five min- 
utes. 

Yet throughout the first two months there were also many 
times when she failed to pay any attention to sounds quite as 
striking as the few she did notice. The great variation in sensi- 
bility struck me especially in the second month. 

From early in the third month (69th day), I note repeatedly 
that she was diverted more or less when being dressed or fretful for 
any other reason, by hearing things rattled. The 83d day, she 
showed no attention to a watch at her ear. 

In the fifth month, 134th day, she was startled while nursing by 
a piece of coal dropped on the hearth, and sat up and cried a little, 
with a pitiful expression. Other instances of attention to sound in 
the second and third months occur below, under other heads. 

In the seventh month, 202d day, I note as an unusual incident 
her starting when I called her suddenly; but in the eighth month 
she invariably winked if a door slammed, hands were clapped, or 
articles rapped together near her. 

Early in the ninth month, 249th day, she stopped play and 
turned to look, hearing a pencil dropped behind her on a matted 
floor, several feet away; a few minutes later she turned to look when 
a horse stamped, some forty feet outside, the door and window 
being closed. Again, she stopped m the midst of taking her food 
when an engine whistled, a mile away. About two weeks later, 
265th day, she turned to look when a woodpecker struck a tree, some 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 109 

fifty feet away. In the tenth month she was quick to look and 
listen at the note of a bird, the whistle of an engine miles away, 
etc., — once, on the 285th day, she turned at the chirp of a cricket. 
Her recognition and discrimination of sounds, which was good 
before the end of the year, showed clear hearing. 



2. Direction. 

The earliest ability to direct her look, except when it was drawn 
along by something on which her eyes were fixed, was when guided 
by the continuous sound of the piano close by, as already mentioned 
under Sight. From the fifth to the seventh week when listening 
she had stared into the face of the person who was playing, as if 
she associated that with the sound; but on the 45th day she turned 
once and looked at the keys, and on the 57th began to watch them 
as the source of the sound. 

The 92d day, just before she was three months old, I first saw 
her look for the source of any other sound. Someone sneezed — 
not especially loud — when she was nursing; she stopped suddenly, 
seemed startled, and made sounds of discomfort, and her mother 
lifted her into a sitting position to divert her, on which she turned 
her head and looked with every appearance of intention in the 
direction of the sound. I was told, however, that a few days 
before she had lifted her head at the sound of the fire snapping, and 
looked as if to see where it came from. From this time she would 
occasionally turn her head to seek the source of sounds, — once in 
the twentieth week, at the humming of a teakettle, — and by the 
second six months it was common. 

It seemed to me from the first that she guided her look quite 
accurately toward the sound. The incident of her locating me when 
I called to her over the top of a tall screen (165th and i68th days) 
has been given under the head of Sight (p. 23); also that of her 
difficulty in finding the sour'ce of our voices when we called to her 
from a second-story window, — and this difficulty appeared even in 
the thirteenth month (386th day) when her position was a little 
unfavorable, off at one side of the window. I found on the early 
occasion, when she was about six months old, that a sufficiently 



Iio . University of California. [Vol. i. 

sharp and striking sound, as the rusthng of paper, would draw her 
eyes up to the window when our voices failed. 

At this age she was under ordinary circumstances quite accu- 
rate in turning toward a voice, but when two persons were close 
together and one called her, she would occasionally look at the 
wrong one. 

In the tenth month, I thought she located sounds remarkably 
well: e. g., the 293d day, a horse stamping inside a stable eight or 
ten rods away; a man moving about inside a neighboring building. 
Earlier, the 282d day, I had seen her turn at sound of an approach- 
ing wagon to watch for its appearance around the curve of the 
drive, about a hundred feet away ; but this was probably inference 
and memory, rather than correct location of the sound; and on the 
286th day when she heard someone moving about in the room 
above, she looked at the stair door, instead of upward. 

In the fourteenth and fifteenth months, trying to find me in a 
dark room, she would run directly toward the sound of my voice. 

In the nineteenth month (592d day) hearing a church bell ring 
out unusually clear, a mile away, she ran toward the sound, crying, 
"Bell! ring!" and began to seek the bell in seeming surprise. It 
seemed to me noticeable that when she had no knowledg-e whatever 
of the whereabouts of the bell, she should move without hesitation 
in the right direction. Again, in the twenty-eighth month, the 
school bell, also a mile away, began to ring; the child stopped 
playing and cried, " I heard de 'cool bell!" She was familiar with 
the sound of this bell, but the schoolhouse was not visible, and, 
though she had often passed it, it was by a roundabout road, which 
started out in an entirely different direction. "Where was it? — 
Point," I said. She pointed accurately. Yet once in the twentieth 
month, hearing an electric bell that was fixed in the ceiling of a 
corridor where she was walking, she ran about looking for it in 
vain. It would seem, comparing this incident with her difficulty in 
finding us when we called from upper windows, that a sound con- 
siderably above her was harder to locate than one on the same 
level. 



Shinn.] TJie Development of a Child. ill 



3. Recognition and Discrimination of Sounds. 

The first sign of this that I detected was in the fifth month, 
137th day. I was somewhat hoarse with a cold, and when I spoke 
the baby looked and listened in a way that I thought showed a sense 
of something unusual about my voice. At this time I often read 
softly to her mother as she nursed the baby and sang low to her 
meanwhile. On the 149th day, as I did this, the baby suddenly 
raised her head and gave me an inquiring look, evidently for the 
first time distinguishing our voices as two separate sounds. At just 
five months, when about to reach for an object that interested her, 
she stopped half a dozen times in succession just as she had leaned 
forward and put out her hand, to look over her shoulder with a 
grave and puzzled expression at the sound of her father's voice in 
conversation the other side of the room. From the sixth month 
on, the deep voice of the family doctor, unlike that of any member 
of the family, affected her, and on the 229th day I felt her thrill in 
my arms every time the deep note vibrated as he spoke loudly; she 
looked and listened whenever he spoke. 

In the eighth month, 231st day, she stopped play and listened 
intently, hearing her uncle sing, two rooms away, with the doors 
closed between; her manner made me think she was trying to rec- 
ognize the voice. In the ninth month, 257th day, she crawled twice, 
I was told, to the door, hearing on the other side the voice of her 
grandfather, who was then her especial favorite. By the end of the 
eleventh month there seemed no longer any doubt that she did 
definitely recognize the voices of the family, even in other rooms, 
for she would stop and listen, then beg to go to them. 

The consciousness of difference in verbal sounds appeared 
almost as soon as consciousness of difference in voices. During 
the fifth month her mother and grandmother said to her a great 
deal, ''Pa-pa" hoping to hasten her understanding of the word. 
On the 149th day, they told me, she imitated the motion of the lips, 
and apparently amused by the feeling, laughed, and thereafter 
laughed whenever she heard the sounds. This was repeated for 



112 University of Calif ojmia. [Vol. i. 

my observation, and although at first the word spoken by me did 
not produce the same effect, I tried again when she was undressed 
and very happy, and altered the vowel (saying poo-poo, pup-pu, 
etc.) and the consonant {ba-ba, bd-ba, etc.), and found that she 
invariably laughed, chuckling aloud with gayety at the broad vow- 
els, — this some twenty times. She was more amused when looking 
at the lips, but smiled in any case. The same sounds pronounced in 
ordinary speech, without the marked emphasis, did not amuse. No 
other consonants with the same vowels interested her ; though on 
the theory that the amusement lay in the visible action of the lips 
and the association with a novel feeling there I tried m especially. 
After the first day it made no difference which of us said papa to 
her, different though our voices and inflections were, — she always 
laughed; 151st day, when just five months old, she once stopped 
in the middle of a cry to laugh at it. After some ten days the 
invariable gayety at the sound faded, and by the i62d day it no 
longer amused, but a rapid pop-pop-pop-pop, at which she had before 
only stared in wonder, now made her smile, and often thereafter. 
No effort to associate these sounds with her father had the slightest 
success. 

Late in the sixth month, 173d day, she turned so often when 
her name was called that I tried to find if it was only the calling 
tone she recognized, and called her in the same tone by several 
others. I found she would turn only for "Ruth," or nicknames 
containing a similar vowel sound, such as "Toots." These were, it is 
true, nicknames by which she was often called, but for others quite 
as frequent, e. g., " Baby," she would not turn. In five or six careful 
trials, made behind her, I found that she would turn and look 
intelligently into my face whenever called with the long vowel (il or 
00); and though trials in the next two days were imperfectly suc- 
cessful, they were entirely so on the 178th day, and thereafter. 

Just at the beginning of the eighth month she began to know 
the names of the family, and thereafter understanding of words 
steadily developed. 

In the ninth month, 249th day, she stopped play and listened 
with a look of surprise for a minute or more, hearing the piano in 
the farther corner of the next room; then seeming to recognize the 



Shinn.] TJie Development of a Child. 1 1 3 

sound, began to utter cries of appeal, desiring to get at it and pound. 
Throughout the thirty-seventh week she showed the same excite- 
ment when one took up a toy cat and mewed behind it that she did 
at sight of the real cats, and quite possibly recognized the sound. 
She certainly did at a year old (367th day), and laughed aloud with 
recognition, when someone, amusing her with very clever animal 
noises, imitated a cat. 

In the second year she recognized too many sounds to enumer- 
ate. E. g., in the sixteenth month she knew a bee's humming, and 
would say, "Bee!" on hearing it. In the same month she used the 
word "squeak" of a squeaking made in the pipes by the water run- 
ning out of the tub; and asked on the 507th day what the birds 
— who were chirping, not warbling — said, she answered, after 
listening, " Squeak." She knew at this time the most distant sound 
of cars rumbling, or the whistle, and would cry, "Choo-choo!" 
When she was twenty months old, she showed appreciation of the 
difference between a near and distant whistle, observing, " Choo- 
choo! Way off! Hear choo-choo more ! " (/. e., I wish to hear it 
more.) Thediscrimination was the more difficult as she was indoors, 
and the sound came through walls. In the next month or two, 
"Ruth hear choo-choo, way off," was not an infrequent remark. 

By the twenty-second month she recognized all ordinary bird 
notes as by "birdies" in general, and the owl's and quail's she knew 
specifically. While camping in the woods she heard a bluejay's note, 
was told what it was, and — I was told — always recognized it after- 
ward, crying " Booday !" " Ruth did hear big bluejay birdy," and 
" Ruth hear fishman horn," were among sentences noted by her 
mother just after the close of the twenty-third month. 

In the thirty-first month I thought she showed some sense of 
the phonic values of the letters; her grandmother had told her the 
spellings s-o, n-o, etc., and without much teaching she would go 
through four or five of these, naming the word when the spelling 
was given her, without mistake. This exercise was not followed 
up, however, and she was well on in the first half of the fourth 
year before it became unmistakable that spelling a word suggested 
its sound to her. 

Many other notes that bear on this topic, in the second and 
third years especially, are reserved for the subject of Speech. 



114 University of Calif oiniia. [Vol. i. 

A i<t\M notes on the emotional effect of sounds (other than 
musical) may most fitly be placed here. 

The baby's amusement in the fifth month at certain verbal 
sounds has been spoken of above. In the sixth month, i62d day, 
she laughed upon hearing a little child cry. About the end of the 
sixth month and beginning of the seventh she was tried several 
times with a harsh tone; but instead of crying, like Preyer's baby, 
she would first stare, then laugh. 

Two or three instances of fear at sudden sounds in the earliest 
months have been given. Her sensitiveness to the doctor's deep 
voice (see above) had also much of fear; but this was first mani- 
fested when she heard it just as she lost sight of her mother in a 
strange house, and may have been caused more by this association 
than by any quality in the sound itself. 

Near the end of the twenty-first month (633d day) her father, to 
amuse her, set off some fireworks of the kind called "volcanoes," 
which begin with a display of light and end with a rapid popping. 
She had in her seventeenth month listened, sitting close by, to the 
exploding of many packs of firecrackers on Chinese New Year, 
and had shown only the most absorbed and pleased interest; but 
on this occasion as soon as the popping — a little heavier in quality 
than the crackers — began, she urged, " No more ! " Asked if she 
liked the light, she said, "Yes." — "The noise? " — "No." A few 
days later her father tried again, with more marked result: when 
the popping began, she cried in distress, almost in tears, "Papa 
make no more ! " then, "Papa make light; papa make no more!" 
till he desisted. She was in her mother's arms, inside the room, 
watching the fireworks through a window, and the feeling did not 
seem to me exactly fear, but perhaps a mixture of fear and aversion. 
The next Fourth of July, a year later, she showed a touch of it 
again, but it was overcome without much trouble. (Since the close 
of the three years covered by these notes, at the age of three years 
and five months, she looked on at an exhibition of trained lions with 
quiet enjoyment, — even when the great beasts growled and pressed 
up to the bars close by, — until several pistol shots were fired ; she 
started violently at each one, and at once wished to go, saying, " I 
don't want to 'tay any longer in places where dey have such ugly 
noises." I could not but be reminded by this repugnance, or dread. 



Shinn.] TJie Development of a Child. 1 1 5 

of the cowing effect of explosive noises on the beasts themselves, 
and on most animals.) 

The day she was twenty-five months old she said with strong 
disapproval, "I don't like that!" hearing a frog croak. I noticed 
no other instance of dislike to that particular sound. 

In the thirty-sixth month she several times seemed to find it 
very disagreeable if I, in telling an animal story, imitated the dog's 
whine, the squirrel's chatter, etc.; she would put her hand over my 
mouth and say, " Don't ! " But she would do the same thing 
sometimes if I introduced some pantomimic motion, and I suspect 
dislike of the sound itself had little to do with her feeling, which 
may have been a sort of sense of uncanniness in my making sounds 
or motions outside my proper character. 



4. Music. 

The 27th day, as I have said, the baby showed no attention to 
single notes on the piano; but the next day when fretting with 
hunger she became silent on hearing chords struck; and early in 
the 29th day (evening) again stopped fretting, and lay and listened 
to chords with apparent attention for five minutes. Thereafter for 
some weeks this was the method of diverting her if she became 
hungry before the time of nursing; she would lie quiet listening 
with a look of satisfaction, gazing into the face of the person that 
held her, or after the 57th day watching the keys. On this day, 
when fretting with hunger, she was diverted and kept intent for ten 
minutes on lively music, after slow music had failed to divert, and 
might have listened still longer had we tried. 

During the third month the interest in the piano declined, and 
other means had to be found for keeping her patient if she became 
hungry too soon. During the fourth month it was a pleasure, 
though of less i^elative importance among her interests than in the 
second month. Just before the end of the fourth month, 121st day, 
her uncle began to strike the piano, concealed from her by a high 
chair back. She leaned from my lap, and looked first one side then 
the other of the chair back, with quick, eager turns of her head. I 
took her to his side, and sat down with her. She watched his 
fingers eagerly, and I could feel her start and thrill every time 



1 16 Ujiiversity of California. [Vol. i. 

he struck a heavy chord or accented a note strongly. He began 
to sing in strong baritone ; she gazed alternately up to his face 
and down at his hands, throwing her head back to look up, with 
eyes expanded, brows raised, and jaw dropped; she alternated her 
gaze about every five seconds during the singing of a stanza. 

In the fifth month also pleasure in music was habitual, but still 
declining in relative importance, as her interests grew. On the 133d 
day, e. g., she listened, sometimes making movements with hands or 
feet, or little sounds, sometimes looking up earnestly at me, orsmil- 
jng at her mother. The twentieth week she listened to the piano 
daily with quiet pleasure, preferring lively music. 

In the sixth month she cared little for the piano, especially as 
compared with seizing, and if brought near it, wished to handle the 
keys herself At twenty-four weeks old she again stared with a 
comical look of surprise at her uncle when singing, but did not 
listen as attentively as before; she moved about in my lap and tried 
to put her fingers on the keys, and after one song she tired and 
looked about for other occupation. 

Late in the fourth month, the 120th and 121st days, her body 
quivered with excitement on hearing her uncle whistle; but in the 
eighth month, 228th day, she showed little interest in his shrillest 
whistles, looking up with open mouth each time he changed the 
key and time, then returning to her play. 

During the second half year she would hardly listen to music, 
desiring always to get her own hands on the keys, from which she 
had discovered she could bring sounds. She usually greeted the 
beginning of music with joy ("with a yell of delight," I note; or 
"laughs aloud and flourishes arms") but soon lost interest if not 
allowed to reach the keys herself Once in the seventh month 
(211th day) she sat and listened with joyous laughter to playing 
and singing; and once in the eleventh month (328th day) when two 
young ladies sang with the piano she listened, laughing aloud, 
clapping her hands, and creeping excitedly first toward one, then 
the other; but she soon crept to the piano, and getting to her feet 
tried to reach the keys herself, and cared no longer to listen. 

In the second and third years there was no noteworthy increase 
in her pleasure in music. She would listen with more or less interest 
for a minute or two, then turn to something else. Once near the 



Shinn.] 2 lie Development of a Cliild, 117 

end of the fourteenth month (421st day) she seemed dissatisfied 
with her own results in drumming on the piano, and twice after try- 
ing a Httle while wished someone else to take her place; we thought 
this might be the beginning of some musical perception, but it did 
not prove to be. In the sixteenth month, 458th day, she was a 
good deal interested in a banjo on the cars, but probably as much 
in seeing as in hearing; and so again in the frequent singing and 
playing of a guest, an accomplished musician, in the sixty-ninth 
week. Her interest in handling the piano herself declined at this 
time, but returned in the seventeenth month, and in the seventy- 
second week she was deeply pleased when allowed to do it. This 
interest was, at least from the eighteenth month, in part merely 
imitative; for from that time she insisted on having a book open on 
the rack, and would at intervals turn the leaves over. 

She must have recognized in a general way the sound of music, 
for the word, picked up in the seventeenth month with enthusiasm 
and used ("moo") in begging to be allowed to strike the piano, was 
generalized correctly once in the twentieth month (598th day) when 
she went to listen to musicians on the ferry boat, and commented, 
"Play music!" though their instruments bore no resemblance to 
the piano. 

Her mouth organ was better liked than whistles throughout the 
whole second year, and she took at intervals real pleasure in it. 
Once when just twenty-one months old, she was diverted from 
desire to go outdoors — always a persistent desire — by it, after 
other things had failed. 

In the twenty-seventh month she once asked me to play for her, 
and was dissatisfied when I struck a few chords and scales, urging 
me to ''play." — " Do you mean as mamma does ? " — " Yes." When 
I told her I could not, she gave it up at once. This desire to hear 
real playing was quite exceptional. Her own performance was 
usually perfectly satisfactory to her, and I note over and over that 
she did not care to listen to playing. She did not thump roughly, 
however, but from the twenty-ninth month, if not earlier, touched 
the piano softly, with a good imitation of her mother's manner. 

Her mother had always sung her lullabies, and it is probable she 
had taken some pleasure in them; but beyond going to sleep under 
the combined influence of these and a rocking chair, she did not 



[i8 University of California. [Vol. i. 

show any such pleasure till the twenty-first month, when she was 
laid in her own bed and sung to sleep there, and would now and 
then ask her mother to sing. As early as the sixteenth month, 
she sometimes tried to get her uncle to sing or whistle, — doubtless 
appreciating the more lusty volume of his performance. 

In the latter part of the eighteenth month she liked to touch 
individual notes and listen to the dying of the sound, instead of 
merely thumping; and also seemed for the first time to get some 
idea of difference in pitch, for she would reach in one direction and 
the other along the keyboard to produce high and low tones. Late 
in the twenty-first month (632d day) she commented on a difference 
in pitch: she was in the habit of listening with interest to a squeak- 
ing in the pipes as the water ran out of the bathtub, and on this 
occasion when the sound for some reason rose a little in pitch, she 
cried with profound emphasis and enthusiasm, "Ain't that cunning 
little baby squeak ! " A month later, the 665th day, at the piano, she 
reached far up the keyboard and struck notes as high as she could 
touch, calling them "little." In the twenty-third month, when she 
had once asked me to join her in a monotonous chant of '' Ba-boo, 
ba-boo, ba-boo," that she was amusing herself with, she was annoyed 
when I raised the pitch considerably, and commanded, " Don't, 
aunty, say ba-boo that way." She did not seem to mind how much 
I lowered it. 

Attempts to have her recognize any air failed completely till the 
second quarter of the third year. From the twentieth month, if 
asked "What is it?" of any air, however familiar, she would say, 
"See-saw," or, " See-saw, Ma' Daw:" until late in the twenty-second 
month, when she once hit correctly another, — by accident probably, 
for thereafter for days, elated by congratulations, she was disposed 
to recognize all tunes as "Little Brown Thrush." She was tried 
not only with airs on the piano, with and without chords, but with 
the voice; and humming, or the use of distinct syllables that might 
confuse, was avoided. At last, in the middle of the twenty-eighth 
month, she recognized when thus sung without words, "I went to 
the animal fair," a popular round, in which the time is very marked. 
Four days later, she knew "John Brown had a little Injun," when 
picked out without chords on the piano. She asked for this by 



Shinn.] The Development of a CJiild. \ \ g 

name several times about the same date. Both seemed unmistaka- 
ble recognitions, yet I know of no other within the third year, — if 
I except an apparent one earlier than either, in the twenty-fifth 
month, when just after "Lauriger Horatius," she began to chant a 
fragment from "John Morgan," which she had heard sung to the 
air of Lauriger. 

(In the first half of the fourth year she has learned to recognize 
half a dozen melodies without hesitation.) 

Though it was doubtless by their time that she first recognized 
airs, her sense of rhythm was certainly very little developed. In 
the earliest months, rhythmical motion must have had the usual 
effect of putting her to sleep ; but a rough motion, — a joggling, — 
even when not very regular, was more effective than a smooth, 
swinging one. In the seventh week I noted that she did not go to 
sleep in her carriage while it was drawn to and fro on the paved 
veranda, but that even if fretting, she would stop as soon as the 
wheels struck the gravel walk, and lie still and placid with open 
eyes till they closed with sleep. She usually, but not always, from 
the earliest months on, became sleepy when driving, but not so 
frequently on a train or street car; the effect of the open air is of 
course to be taken into account here. She was usually after the 
eleventh week put to sleep with a rocking chair and singing (aided 
for months by a rubber nipple), but this was not so easy or sure a 
way as to take her driving; and for some time in the fourth month 
it was necessary to begin by setting her upright on the point of the 
knee and trotting her roughly and monotonously, while crooning 
"John Brown had a little Injun," till she grew sleepy; then her 
mother could cuddle her up in her arms and resort to less emphatic 
rhythms. 

I never at any time in the first three years saw any tendency to 
fall into rhythm with any motion of hands, feet, or body ; but in the 
sixteenth month (478th day) when someone caught the child up 
and danced with her in arms, she showed delight that distinctly 
exceeded what she showed over being simply jumped about with, 
and she conceived an unusual affection for the guest who did it. 

When she was twenty-eight months old, I showed her how to 
swing the kindergarten balls, saying, "High — low," or "Far — 



1 20 University of California. [Vol. i. 

near," in time with the motions. She was pleased, and wished to 
do it, and imitated the action with other objects and with her arm, 
but could not be taught to do it in any rhythm, or to say the words 
in time with the motion; and although she liked the exercise and 
occasionally performed it spontaneously, it was not till the second 
week of the thirtieth month that she learned to do it in time. 

Efforts to teach her to march, whether in time to music or keep- 
ing step with us, were futile. Once on the 665th day, in especial 
hilarity at being allowed on a very warm evening to scamper about 
naked, she would from time to time stop and sit down in her little 
rocking chair and rock vigorously, shouting, '^R<S-by, Too-boof" 
("Rockaby, Tootyboo," — a favorite nickname), stamping with her 
feet completely out of time with her voice. 

Unlike other children I have known, she^showed no disposition 
to pick up the words of little jingles, which usually attract by 
their rhythm ; and some efforts made to teach them early in the 
third year were resisted. Near the end of the twenty-sixth month, 
liowever, she learned to repeat four lines of " Little Drops of 
Water" without much prompting; but it was more than two 
months later before she first repeated them correctly, and during 
the interval she steadily refused really to learn any other lines, 
though she would pick up snatches of a few words here and there. 
In the latter part of the twenty-ninth month and during the thirtieth 
she was not unwilling to learn jingles, and learned half-a-dozen or 
more, more or less spontaneously; she would occasionally repeat 
these, or pretend to sing them at the piano. At this time, also, she 
seemed pleased in listening to rhymes, which she had not cared to 
do for months : in the first week of the thirtieth month she listened 
carefully to "The Owl and the Pussy-cat," and said at the end of 
each stanza, "I like that story." She usually, however, refused to 
say the words of the little action songs her mother tried to teach 
her, though she liked accompanying them with the motions if her 
mother would attend to the words. After the thirtieth month she 
became averse again to repeating rhymes, soon forgot them all, and 
did not recover them. 

The rhythm of these verses seemed to give her no help in 
remembering them ; and so far from preserving metre even if she 
marred the sense, as some children do, she would constantly hold 



shinn.] Tlic Development of a Child. 121 

to her memory of the meaning, at any cost to the metre. Thus in 
"The Barberry Rush," for "This is the way we go to sleep," she 
said, "This is the way we lie down and go to sleep;" and in Hke 
manner, "One, two, buckle 2Lp my shoe," and, "Rockaby, baby, on 
the tree top; when the wind blows the cradle will tip over',' were 
gratuitous dislocations of rhythm. 

"Here is the beehive, but where are the bees? 
Hidden away where nobody sees; 
Soon they '11 come creeping out of the hive, — 
One, — two, — three, — four, — five," 

was rendered, 

"He' i' bee-hi', bu' fa bee? 
Hi' 'way, fa nobo' see. 
One, two, free, fo', fi', come out," 

and Jack Horner became 

"Li-tel Ja' Ho'-nay 
Sa' in co'-nay, 
A' pull ou' p'um, a' sai', 'Fa g'ea' bo' am I! ' " 

In the following, recited upon seeing a picture of Bopeep, appears 
still more indifference to rhyme than rhythm : — 

"She has lost her little baa-lambies. 

And don't know where to find them. 
So leave them alone and they '11 come back, 
And bring their tails behind them." 

Even when she repeated verses fairly correctly, her frequent omis- 
sion of articles and her disposition to dock syllables jarred the 
metre more or less, and she never made the instinctive effort to 
correct this by extra syllables that children sometimes do. (Since 
the close of the third year, I have seen some signs of appreciation 
of the metrical movement of verse.) 

No imitation of singing showed the faintest attempt to repro- 
duce the time of the original (unless in the one instance of four or 
five syllables of "See-saw, Marjory Daw," in the twenty-second 
month) until the thirtieth month, when the time of "John Brown 
had a Little Injun" was fairly well rendered. Her dislike to try 
to imitate any known songs after this made it impossible to watch 
progress in catching their rhythm, but in occasional snatches such 

progress was visible, 
y 



122 University of California. [Vol. i. 

As early as the sixteenth month repeated efforts were made to 
have the child take a note, but she proved utterly incapable of even 
understanding what was wanted, and would simply shout back the 
syllable used, without an effort at pitch, or even musical tone. By 
the twenty-sixth month, if a note was given followed by one an 
octave higher, she would so far imitate as to give back two syllables 
of which the second was the higher, but not even in pure musical 
tone; nor could she follow a downward change of pitch at all. 
Thinking that a connected bit of melody, with the words, might be 
easier to repeat than single notes, her mother tried at the end of 
this month to get some imitation of " Little drops of water," but in 
vain; then to train the child to give back the two notes at the end of 
the line, but although twice she did approach them she oftener 
repeated wildly, either carrying the higher note up to falsetto, or 
reversing high and low, or begiiming far below pitch in order to 
emphasize the rise. By the thirtieth month she understood the 
directions "Higher," and "Lower," and did several times seem to 
approximate a note; but it is likely this was accidental, and she 
made no farther progress in the third year. (Within the first half 
of the fourth, since the close of this record, she is more willing to 
try, can guide her voice better, does not go so far wrong, and now 
and then even takes a note correctly.) 

When her first efforts at imitating singing were made, she did 
not seem even to have perceived any difference in tone between 
singing and speech. In the seventeenth month she began to imitate 
both reading aloud and singing by the same sound, — a monotonous 
la-la-la, with scarcely even a chanting tone, and it was weeks before 
she made any differentiation in it for singing. Once in the twentieth 
month, hearing the name of a guest who had sung a great deal 
while in the house in the sixty-ninth week, she began to say, 
"Loo-loo-la," over and over in a loud tone. Urged, "What does 
Ruth mean?" she finally said with an air of slight offense, "Si.' 
Izha," — sing like Ivy. (This was in the eighty-fourth week ; and the 
length of the memory is certainly surprising: it was not purely a 
sound memory, however, for she had taken much interest in seeing 
this lady sing, and had had a great fancy for her, and talked of her 
for some days after she was gone; at least once in the interval, also, 
in the seventy-seventh week, the memory had been brought up.) 



SniNN.] The Development of a CJiild. 123 

"Loo-loo-la" was probably a reminiscence of" Hallelujah," which she 
often heard her grandfather sing; and in the tvventy-second month 
when asked what grandpa sang, she would chant, ''Ld-loo-ld," or 
similar syllables, instead of trying to give any reminiscence of the 
tune. In like manner, other songs were remembered by the words 
and correctly attributed to the people who sang them, and this even 
in a case where the words were probably unintelligible (viz.," Where's 
your mule, O where' s your mule?" in John Morgan; rendering this, 
'' Fa-vioo-lo! Fa-moO'lof" she knew the song by it.) She never at 
any time tried to reproduce an air, except in the one instance of 
"See-saw, Marjory Daw" (mentioned above in connection with 
rhythm;; in repeating these words she made a faint attempt at 
imitation in the opening syllables. At the end of the twenty-sixth 
month, when she had become fairly familiar with the words of 
" Little Drops of Water," her mother persuaded her to undertake to 
sing it through independently; and for about three weeks she could 
occasionally be got to do this. The words were merely shouted 
out in a loud, chanting drawl at a medium pitch, with occasion illy 
a syllable in high falsetto, — a ridiculous burlesque. She was quite 
serious about it, but did not lil^e much to do it, and seemed to be 
aware it was not right, and to feel a little sheepish about it; and 
after a few weeks she refused to continue it. 

Once in the twenty-seventh month she was tal-ien into Sunday 
school, where she tried to sing loudly with the children, without 
any reference to the tune, to most confusing result, as may be 
imagined. 

In my notes on rhythm I necessarily have gone outside the sub- 
ject of Hearing, since rhythm is not perceived by hearing alone. 
In order to complete my notes on Music by those on the spontane- 
ous development of singing, — which was quite a different thing 
from the futile efforts at imitation of our songs, — I can scarcely 
omit some on the improvisation of words, although it takes me still 
farther outside the subject. 

The first sign of any disposition in the baby to express herself 
musically was brought out by the hearing of music: this was on 
the fifty-ninth day, when the mother began to play, and the baby at 
once set up a soft singing murmur in monosyllables, u, u, and kept 



1 24 University of California. [Vol. i. 

it up as long as the music lasted. This I did not hear myself, and 
could not get her to repeat in so marked a degree: she would utter 
the murmur, but did not keep it up. Soon after, she fell into the 
habit of noticing the beginning only of music with one or two 
syllables of the murmur: this habit lasted till sometime in the fourth 
month. The eighty-third day, a strong, heavy chord on the piano 
brought this coo from across the room; she had always before been 
close by. 

At eight months old (242d day) on hearing chorus singing, she 
joined in with a disconcerting squeal on every high note; and dur- 
ing the ninth month had a note of her own, which she sometimes, 
but not always, contributed on hearing singing, without attempt at 
concord. Except a crooning while falling asleep, at a year old, this 
was the extent of disposition to sing during the first year. 

In the second year, she showed none until after, in the seven- 
teenth month, she had begun to try to imitate singing, as mentioned 
above, — possibly led thereto by the efforts to get her to take a note 
then, in the eighteenth month, she took up certain prattles, or 
warbles, with which she amused herself, laughing aloud at the 
sounds and trying different tones. They were more like the bab- 
bling before she learned to speak than like any real musical attempt, 
but from this time, a sort of tuneless crooning as she was about her 
play walking, or driving, became a regular expression of happiness 
Occasionally snatches from songs entered into it, — 2.^'^ Loo-loo-loo-la ^ 
or ^'Fa-moo-lo" mentioned above; but usually it was in meaningless 
syllables, one succession of these favored for a time, then another, 
— " Bd-bd-bd-ba-ba," in the twenty-first month, ^' La-la-la-la- la,'' 
and "Ba-boo, ba-boo, ba-boo" in the twenty-second, changing in the 
twenty-third to ''Boo-ba, boo-ba," then ''Li-l%-lce, 1%-1%-lee;" etc. She 
took extreme satisfaction in these exercises, and once (662d day) 
when some one of the others in the carriage with her would begin 
to sing, she would command, "Don't sing!" and strike up herself 
with her loud tuneless syllables. She regarded this as singing, 
and if asked what she was doing would say, "Sing." Once, late in 
the twenty-third month, hearing someone say, " Let us go try that 
song," she began to chant and croon in her fashion. Yet she also 
sometimes used such expressions as "Say ba-boo," not "Sing," and 
evidently had little idea of any difference between speech and sing- 
ing. 



Shinn.] TJic Devdopinent of a Child. 1 25 

About the end of the second year, the pitch in these chantings, 
which had been scarcely varied from a monotone, began to take 
wider range ; but for nearly three months of the third year it was 
still hardly distinguishable from the imitation of reading aloud, of 
which also the child was very fond in this quarter-year. The con- 
trast between her joy in her own "singing" as she ran and frisked 
about, and her reluctant efforts to sing "Little Drops of Water," 
was striking: and it is also noticeable that in the spontaneous utter- 
ances she did not vary the loud, monotonous chant with the gro- 
tesque drawls and falsetto syllables used in the other case; and this 
was true whether she was chanting fragments of words from songs, 
or as was more frequent, using a mere jargon. The syllables used 
(both in imitating reading and in "singing") had more variety; e.g. 
^'' A-ha-b%-aw-%v%. A-wt-d-hd-bi-d-wl-d-hd-zvV 

Late in the twenty-fifth month, the chanting grew perceptibly 
more rhythmic, varied, and began for the first time to take a sing- 
ing tone; while the syllables increased in variety so strikingly that 
I began to suspect she was really using words, which I failed to 
catch till one evening in the middle of the twenty-sixth month I 
heard her croon, lying on the floor, "Go to sleep, Ruth. Go to 
sleep, little baby Ruth. Go to sleep, dear little baby Ruth." 

The next morning I allowed her to pile up a number of books 
on the lounge, and sat taking notes as she prattled to me about 
what she was doing. By and by she began to turn her comments 
into a sort of rhythm: "Mi'-ce' [Milicent] I going to get more 
book, book, book. . . . Ruth, you know, I going to get more 
book, book, book." " Mi'-ce', I going to build nice, nice, nice 
house." "I going get more book, Mi'-ce', Mi'-ce', Mi'-ce','' — 
then passed into a jargon in a singing tone, '" E-dd-we-ve. Sd-fd- 
ie-ve-we-de" and went to the piano to continue while touching 
the keys. On the same day, having heard, " I went to the animal 
fair," lustily sung, she chanted snatches from it while about her 
play, and within the week I heard her chanting over and over, 
" Here we go round the barberry bush;" but for the most part mere 
jargon, as " Da-la-wa-we'' was preferred. 

By another month the imitation of reading and the "singing" 
.were distinctly differentiated, the one keeping the unmodulated 
tone, differing from speech only in loudness, monotony, and expres- 



126 University of California. [vol. i. 

sionlessness, while the singing was now really modulated and had 
intervals that gave it a musical sound without any recognizable 
melody. Once in the twenty-sixth month I heard the child singing 
the numbers (which she knew up to ten) quite rhythmically. 

During the second quarter of the year, one or two odd efforts at 
improvisation occurred. In the first week of the twenty-ninth month, 
she was heard chanting something to herself as her mother picked 
her up to take her to bed. We could not make out the words for 
some seconds, and when we did, she was chanting : " The gull birdy 
has catight a rock. — The gull birdy has caugJit a bird. — TJie gull 
birdy has caught a cracker.'' Finding that we were interested, she 
became somewhat proud of the song, and said she wanted to go to 
the piano and "sing about a kitty; " and touching the keys, chanted 
" The kitty has caught a book" etc., putting in the names of various 
articles, as her eyes fell on them. The original suggestion must 
have been from the gulls she had seen about the ferry-boat seizing 
bread and crackers thrown to them; and could we have heard the 
bec^inning of the improvisation we might have found an intelligible 
theme, on which she varied at random. For more than a week she 
was fond of singing to herself, " The gull birdy lias caugJit a rock," 
then fell back on the jargon of syllables. 

During the rest of the quarter she sometimes varied her prattle 
with chanted fragments of words that seemed to have stuck in her 
memory by their rhythm: thus in the last week of the thirtieth 
month she interpolated amid broken comments on what she was 
doing, ''Mrs. — Mrs. — Airs. — and Fife ssd — Mrs. — Mrs. — 
B'oivn." Several times in this month she spontaneously broke out 
with some of the songs she had learned, once sitting down at the 
piano and going through her whole list, and once, with some help, 
carrying through "The Barberry Bush," with all the motions, fairly 
well; but on the whole she was averse to any attempt to regulate 
her voice and preferred to shout, caper, and squeal, sometimes 
dancing about a little and singing in her own fashion, rather than 
to use words of any sort. 

In the remaining half-year I noted no singing except of this 
unordered sort, till the last fortnight of the third year, when after 
hearing "Trancadillo," she went about all day caroling not unmu- 
sically though without tune, " T'ancadillo, O T' ancadillo" soon 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 1 27 

changed to ''Ca.zade-zvo, Cazade-ivof' and this she carried on into 
a medley of words and wordless syllables, e. g., " Cazade-wo, O 
Ca.sade-wo, O s'eet la-da-wa-adewo, an' de s'eetosim [sweet ocean]," 
(Cazadero is the name of a place at which she had been.) She danced 
about joyously as she uttered these strings of words. The next day 
she came to me and said earnestly, "I know a bird song." I asked 
her to sing it, and she began to twitter syllables in a high tone, skip- 
ping about and waving her little arms, mixing meaningless syllables 
with fragmentary words about, " Come, birdy, — birdy comeT She 
repeated this several times in the day, and it became evident that 
the song and dance involved going away to a distance and coming 
back. Her mother made out the words, '■'■ Little birdy fly ^ — then 
after some jargon, " Come home to the nest." Such an invention was 
entirely out of keeping with her ways, and we thought it impossible 
that it was her own; but except that her mother remembered trying 
to teach her such a song more than a year before, we could learn no 
source for it, and she herself insisted in evident good faith that 
mamma had not told her, no one had told her, — she had told it to 
herself. If it was original, it was exceptional, imitative, and not 
characteristic. 

She had now a great ambition to sing, but utterly rejected all 
known songs, refusing order or sense. Fragments of words of her 
own, mixed with syllables, as "la, la," made up the songs, — about 
which she was grave and earnest "I know a niee, pitty song, 
au'tee; I can sing it on de pee-anny," she said, looking very ear- 
nestly into my face. She took me to the piano, and touching the 
keys at random chirped in falsetto, without tune, but marking the 
rhythm somewhat : — 

"^// about de pitty birdies. 

La-la-la, de birdies, de birdies. 

All about de pitty birdies, pitty, pitty birdies. 

" Dat 's de song. I know anuvvay pitty song. Dis is about 
books: — 

'M// about de pitty books, 

De wed bootcs, de b'ack books, de books, de la-la. 

Dat song is about a back book; b'ack all ovay; b'ack inside and 

b'ack outside. — 

''All about de Lfkell Joe, — 
U'kelljoe, a' d Au'tee, ad Roof IVetmo^ S'inn, de names, . 
De b'ack names, de file names, de wed names, all abotd de names.*' 



128 University of California. [Vol. i. 

This was suggested by her uncle's coming in and speaking to 
her. She went on, chanting other words in like manner, from 
random suggestions. 

About a week later, in the highest spirits, racing about, shout- 
ing and singing, she went once to the piano, and sat many minutes 
touching the keys and warbling at the top of her voice, without 
tune, but with a joyous birdlike musical effect. I took down the 
words of one song: — 

"All about de circus coming. 
Coming to Centerville, to Niles, 
To all de people' s houses. ' ' 

I may have exaggerated her marking of the rhythm by divid- 
ing these improvisations into lines. Even without this, however, 
the resemblance to some of the rudest negro improvisations is 
obvious, — not the best ones, preserved as standard negro songs, 
but the samples given by observers of those that are made every 
day. As regards the melody, too, I am unable to resist a suspicion 
that had a competent musician tried, he might have reduced the 
apparently tuneless caroling of the later months to some system 
with very primitive intervals, perhaps like those detected by Miss 
Fletcher in Indian chants, or even like those of bird-songs. The 
pleasing effect, and a certain resemblance to the singing of birds, 
chiefly to the musical jargoning of blackbirds in the fall, is what 
gives me this suggestion ; and I have heard an ancient Hawaiian 
incantation that had a good deal of the same quality. If young 
children, unable to master our melodies, do indeed achieve some 
more primitive sort of music, while improvising words in a manner 
that unquestionably resembles that of the rudest races, the fact is 
most interesting. And such a primitive musical condition should be 
decidedly more evident in an unmusical child. My niece may be 
expected to inherit very little musical capacity: her father and most 
of his kindred are unusually deficient in it, while her mother and 
her mother's kindred have it in but moderate degree. 

The child herself was perfectly satisfied with this singing. One 
day in the last fortnight of the year, she said to me, "You can't 
sing." (This I had often told her when she wished me to sing for 
her.) — "No, aunty can't sing." — "/can." 



Shinn.j Tlie Development of a Child. 129 



5. Interest in Hearing. 

The first interest shown in any sounds was undoubtedly called 
out by chords of music. The next may possibly have been in the 
jingling of rattles, which from the third month (86th day) the baby 
would look at, and finally grasp, with an appearance of interest, but 
the jingle may have had little to do with it: they were convenient 
objects to hold, and she cared more to mouth than to shake them; 
late in the fourth month she liked to bang them — or other objects 
— down on the tray of her high chair, — an amusement that 
caused great glee at least once as late as the 185th day. 

At three months also, interest or curiosity concerning various 
sudden sounds began to be shown by turning the head to look for 
the source, as noted above {Directio7i). From about the end of the 
third month, also, it was a great joy to the baby to be propped with 
cushions in a high chair at the table at dinner, where she would 
coo, and crow, and flourish her arms wildly, — a complex pleasure 
into which the lights, faces, voices, and rattling of dishes doubtless 
entered. 

The next interest in sound, beginning the 109th day, was in 
sounds made by lier own vocal organs; this was a very lively inter- 
est, and when she was five months old, her chief pleasure; it lapsed 
during the sixth month, but reappeared during the seventh, and with 
intermissions continued throughout the whole period of this record. 
But the pleasure was no doubt as much in the use of her vocal 
organs as in the sound. So with other sounds made by herself: 
the action was a large part of the interest. Thus the ringing of a 
bell, which she acquired late in the fifth month. At the end of the 
sixth month she took great joy in this; she would also bang the 
bell down hard, till her chair was all nicked, winking at every blow. 
Throughout the second six months, from time to time, she took 
great pleasure in this bell; and once (265th day) when it had been 
put away for some time her joy in recovering it was intense. 
Again, in the ninth month she picked up the practice' of tooting 
into a horn, cuff, paper tube, in imitation of our blowing on a horn; 
she was quite interested in this imitation for about a month, but 
after that oftener wished to see us do it. After learning in the 



130 University of California. [Vol. i. 

eleventh month really to blow a whistle, she was for several weeks 
much interested in doing it, but by the thirteenth month liked quite 
as well to hand it to others and see them do it. In the twelfth 
month, 342d day, she found she could blow a mouth organ, and 
this she liked to do from time to time for months, as long as the 
toy lasted ; she did not learn to go up and down the scale at all 
imtil in the third year, when a new mouth organ for a few days 
interested her. This too she would hand to us with a begging 
sound, wishing to have it blown. In the thirteenth month, she 
learned to ring a call bell, and from time to time thereafter took 
more or less interest in doing it. In the fifteenth, on Christmas, 
445th day, she came into possession of various squeaking, whistling, 
and ringing toys, all of which she learned to manipulate at once, 
but never cared much to do it. Her interest in touching the piano 
has been fully spoken of under Music. 

The only time at which I have any general note to the effect 
that she liked to make a noise is in the thirteenth month, when, e. g., 
she would jerk and rattle her tin tub, and scrape a chair against the 
hearth. For a week or two in the fourteenth and fifteenth months 
she was fond of making a rubber doll squeak, but chiefly in doing 
it by novel methods, stepping on the doll, or jumping it up and 
down. In the twenty-second month (647th day) I once note her 
pounding her fork on her tin plate. 

Interest in sounds not made by herself was also a somewhat 
mixed one, as it was usually joined with that of watching the noise- 
making process. The 1 19th day the baby's mother made a trilling 
sound, which made her lips vibrate. The baby watched her, with 
brows raised high, then turned her eyes and looked at my face. I 
repeated the sound; she watched me, turned back to her mother, 
and so back and forth for some minutes, brows raised, eyes wide, 
jaw dropped. The 137th day, while fretting, she would be diverted 
for some moments by a rattling sound, — would become silent, 
look with surprise and absorption for a minute or two, begin to fret 
again, and stop at a change in the sound. A week later she was 
again diverted thus, and thereafter it was the rule that a new sound 
would silence and interest her, unless she was crying hard. On the 
whole, however, sounds, except voices addressing her, were less 
interestine in the sixth month than the fifth. 



shinn.] TJie Development of a Child. 1 3 1 

Throughout the second six months almost any novel sound 
pleased. E. g., the 203d day she sat in a stranger's lap, mightily 
pleased with odd vocal noises he made; the 221st day, a tin cup 
rattled on the teeth, or blowing in a bottle, diverted her successfully 
when she had waked and missed her mother. By the ninth month 
novelty was quite necessary in such simple sounds to make them 
interesting: she would often listen with a surprised and intent air, 
watching our faces, if we made any new or odd sound; and I have 
one note of this as late as the fifty- third week. 

In the second year, noises for their own sakes, apart from the 
surprise of novelty, perhaps pleased a little more; in the fifty-sixth 
week she was interested by being told animal noises; in the sixty- 
third she would listen when told to the birds' chirping, and desired 
to have a watch or clock held to her ear to hear the ticking. But 
in the seventieth week, she seemed to care more about seeing me 
take out and put back the watch than about listening to it: after 
listening a moment, she would point to the fold of my dress and 
urge, "Ba'! Ba'!" "Put it back?" "E" (Yes), then would wish 
to hear it again, then to have it put back, and so on. In the sixty- 
seventh week she was curious about sounds heard outdoors, — 
would point and make an interrogative sound at the noise of a 
distant gun, e. g. 

Once in the seventieth week (491st day) she improved a chance 
to seize the spoon in the mush, and turn a spoonful out on the floor 
with a shout of exultation, which her uncle, laughing, imitated : 
" Whee-ee! I 've got it!" She looked at him, interested, and pointing 
to him with her finger and uttering a coaxing sound, urged him to 
repeat; then, when he refused, turned with the asking sound and 
finger to each of the three others present. In like manner on sev- 
eral other occasions she would ask each one present, and even the 
portraits on the wall, to repeat something, a sneeze for example. 

One of the few instances of persistent interest in a sound pure 
and simple was that in the squeaking of the water as it ran out of 
the tub after her bath : in the sixteenth and seventeenth months she 
would regularly listen for it, pointing" to the outlet before the noise 
began, and saying, "Kee! Kee!" (squeak) or in the twentieth 
month, "Kee! Hea' kee!" and if she had cried at being taken from 
the bath, she would stop when the sound began. I note this inter- 



132 University of California. [vol. i. 

est throucrh the twenty-second month; after which, I think, some 
change in the pipes stopped the squeaking. 

The only marked interest in listening to a sound that I have 
noted during the third year, occurred in the one hundred and 
eleventh week, when an old clock, whose apparatus for ringing the 
hours was still in order, was turned over to her uses, and she several 
times sat absorbed for nearly half an hour, listening as this was kept 
ringing. This pleasure was of course, however, very complex, and 
consisted more in seeing the apparatus set in motion, than in the 
simple sound; and part of the time she was allowed to do the ring- 
ing herself. 

Although my notes for the second and third years are very far 
from being exhaustive in such matters as this, it is certain the inter- 
est in hearing, apart from intellectual inferences, was never consid- 
erable. Sounds were chiefly provocative of curiosity, — the child 
wished to see what made them, how it was done, what they signi- 
fied, and rarely cared to listen for any other purpose. 

i 

The only acoustic experiments recorded are in the eleventh 

month, 325th day, when she rubbed a bottle over the cane seat of a 
chair for some moments, laughing to hear the sound; and in the 
twelfth, 351st day, when she was interested in rubbing a bottle 
across the matting to make a sound. 

A few incidents showed curiosity about sound more decidedly 
than the simple turning to find the source. In the twentieth month, 
598th day, being in a large, bare room, a gymnasium, she shouted, 
and hearing the echo, shouted several times again, listening; then 
said, "Noise! Find noise! " She was serious, troubled, and persist- 
ent about it, and hunted all about the walls and entries, saying, 
"Find noise! See noise!" At last she fixed on a row of Indian 
clubs hanging on the wall, and put her hand on them, declaring 
that was the noise; but she was not satisfied with the solution, for 
she asked about the noise and wanted to "find" it, for some time 
after we left the building. It seems probable that her desire to 
"see the noise" did not indicate an idea of the sound as a visible 
thing (though this was my impression of her meaning at the time), 
but rather a confusion of the word "noise" with the meaning 
"thinsf that makes the noise." But that her consciousness of the 



shixn.] TJie Development of a Child. 133 

act of hearing was far less distinct than of that of seeing was evi- 
dent when some two weeks later, 61 6th day, I tried the experiment 
of asking her what she did with her eyes, mouth, hands, nose, ears. 
The only question to which she could not give some sort of an- 
swer was as to her ears, — she had not connected them with hearing 
in the smallest degree. We tried to show her by closing and open- 
ing her ears while making a noise. This interested her; she looked 
serious and absorbed, remarked, "Noise? See?" and listened when 
told she could not see noise — it went right in at her ears; but 
soon said, " No more," and wished the experiment to stop. 

The evidence of language, also, places her consciousness of 
hearing later than that of seeing. The general word "noise" was 
not used till the twentieth month, "hear" not till the twenty-first; 
"music" was earlier, in the seventeenth, and one sound, "squeak," 
was known by name in the sixteenth ; while at a year old she first 
imitated (with a little teaching) an animal sound, and in the next 
two months learned to name several animal notes. 

I am permitted to add here some interesting notes from fellow-members of 
a "Child-Study Section" of the Collegiate Alumnae, which is affiliated as a 
graduate seminary with the University of California. 

NOTES BY MRS. LULU MEDBURY CHAPMAN, A. B., UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 

I . Direction of Sound. 

In the twentieth month the boy could readily determine in which room a 
bell was struck, when he was in the hall, the arrangement being thus: — 



Hall. 

I J 



2. Mus!c. 

In the twelfth month, while unable to lift his feet to ktep time without losing 
his balance, the boy would sway his body up and down in time to well-marked 
music, stopping with signs of impatience when he lost time. A little later, he 
would clap his hands in time to music. By the twentieth month, if I held his 
hands to help him balance himself, he could keep the polka step for six measures 
at a time. From the thirty-sixth month (he is now in the fourth year), he often 
beats time with his hand while his sister plays. If in crossing the ferry he 
chances to be near the band, he beats time, apparently unconsciously. 

In the thirty-eighth month I made the following experiments: I had his sis- 
ter play a march, and the boy clapped his hands to it, keeping good time when 
she played slowly; but when she played the same thing more rapidly, he lost 



134 University of California. [Vol. i. 

time and did not regain it. I tlien had liim march to her playing. He kept 
good time when the music was slow. She quickened the time, and he lost step, 
but regained it; when slie played still more rapidly, he began to run around the 
table. I told him to do as the music told him, and to keep his mind from wan- 
dering from it repeated frequently, "Listen to the music." After three trials 
he learned to increase the rapidity of his step as the music changed, losing step 
for a beat or two at each change, and then regaining it. He succeeded in 
keeping step, both with hands and feet, to a well-marked polka, but waltz time 
utterly confused him. 

Although the child's sense of rhythm is evidently good, and he likes to hear 
verse, he never would learn it; he would repeat a few words, then go rambling 
off with inventions of his own. So far as I recollect, when he did repeat any- 
thing, he readily caught the meter. At thirty months, however, when I was 
accustomed to sing him to sleep with "Guide me, O thou great Jehovah," he 
sang himself, "Guide mamma, O thou great Jehovah," — an obvious sacrifice 
of meter to his understanding of the sense. Later, he would sacrifice sense, 
meter, and everything else to getting every letter and sound in a word fully 
enunciated, unless he could lengthen the word or make it more sonorous, as 
chim-mun-ny for chimney. 

The first time that he tried to sing himselt was in the instance mentioned just 
above, at eighteen months. He chanted the line in a high monotone, prolong- 
ing the last syllable, without time and without tune. For about four months 
thereafter he made occasional similar attempts, then hearing the older chil- 
dren, who had been to hear an opera, singing a great deal, he made more fre- 
quent attempts for a couple of weeks, and began to observe the time some- 
what. After this he sang less, and at three years did not keep the time as well 
as in the thirty-fifth month. So still, in the middle of the fourth year, he loses 
the time by his punctilious enunciation, by drawling, and by a tendency to turn 
everything into 2/4 time. He cannot follow a tune, but now makes some effort 
to do so, using a range of three notes. 

3. Verbal Preferences. 

The child not only likes blank verse, as noted above, but is very fond of 
jingling rhymes. At thirty months, following the older children, he began 
rhyming words, as, "I see a wagon-pagon," or oftener would play on the chil- 
dren's names, "Hester-pester," "Ada-tada," etc. This continued several 
weeks, then was given up entirely. 

In the twenty-fourth month I first noticed a fondness for alliteration, which 
continues in the middle of the fourth year. For some three weeks in the thirty- 
second month he distorted his speech with alliterations to a painful degree; 
as, "He halked hown the heet," for "He walked down the street." (This 
has reappeared slightly in the forty-third month.) 

For a time, some certain word would please him greatly, and would be used 
frequently, regardless of sense. In the twenty-fourth month, after he had 
heard the word electric used, everything became "laktic;" all cars were "lak- 
tic cars," we had " laktic bread," etc. In the thirty-second month, for several 



shinn.] TJie Developuient of a CJiild. 135 

weeks, he repeated the letteers T-O-B over and over for his own amuse- 
ment. Other words have been used in the same way. As they conveyed no 
possible meaning to him, he must have bjen moved simply by a fancy for the 
sound. 



NOTES BY MRS. MABEL WALCOTT BEATTY, B. L. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 

I. Direction of Sound. 

Eariy in the ninth month I noted that my boy had been for two or three 
months noticeably accurate in catching the direction of sounds. Near the end 
of the eleventh month (332d day) he was alone in a room, and I in another on 
the same floor, but at the opposite corner of the house, and separated from the 
room he w^as in by a hall and another room. Hearing him fretting I called to 
him repeatedly to come to me. He stopped fretting, and began to creep 
toward the sound of my voice, foUovi^ing it intelligently into the intermediate 
room, where his attention was attracted by something, and he came no farther. 

2. Music. 

The child has been at all times fond of hearing music. In the first six 
months he would remain very quiet listening to the music on the ferryboat. 
At five months he listened a long time attentively to the piano, and has never 
ceased to be much interested in hearing it. In the thirteenth month he learned 
to blow a mouth organ, and was always delighted with the sound; before he 
could blow it himself he would put it to someone else's mouth as a request to 
have it blown. 

3. Interest in Sounds. 

At six months the child was fond of squeezing a rubber doll given him a 
few days before, to make it cry. He seemed always to like the sound. In the 
ninth month he would notice the train bell and whistle several blocks away. 
In the eleventh month anything that made a noise was preferred as a plaything, 
and drumming on a tin pan was a favorite amusement. Loud and unfamiliar 
noises at this time (eleventh month) frightened him. So odd sounds made by 
people; the roar of the incoming train; the noise of the scrubbing brush. When 
he became familiar with them, he would lose his fear. 



THE DERMAL SENSES. 
Sense of Contact. 

I. General and Local Sensibility. 

From the first day the baby seemed perfectly aware when she 
was touched or cuddled, and seemed to find it agreeable, for she 
would stop fretting at once. 

The first appearance of localized sensibility was about the lips 
and tongue. I saw no sign definite enough to be recorded of her 
noticing a touch (except in the vague way mentioned above) till the 
29th day, when she smiled distinctly at a touch on her upper lip, 
her first smile for a specific cause; and this was repeated some 
minutes later. Again, the 32d day, she smiled repeatedly when 
her mother was rubbing a speck from her lip. In the latter part of 
the second month a smile could almost always be coaxed by rub- 
bing the lip, or touching the cheek with a finger tip. That it was a 
smile of pleasure, not a reflex, seemed evident, as the eyes smiled 
also, and once she smiled two or three times after such a touch, 
without any repetition of the stimulus. 

In the seventh week, for some days, she experimented with the 
tongue a good deal, putting out and withdrawing the tip through 
pursed lips. In the eighth month she returned more intelligently 
to this, and from time to time during the month had a habit of run- 
ning out her tongue and moving it about, feeling her lips and trying 
its motions. 

In the ninth week, when she was held close to anyone's cheek, 
if hungry, she would lay hold on it and suck, but if not hungry 
would apply her lips to it and lick it. From this time she developed 
a peculiar delight in putting her lips to someone's face and mouthing 
it, which lasted throughout the year; I have no note of it in 
the second year, but it may not have entirely disappeared, for my 
notes were necessarily less exhaustive as the phenomena to be 
observed became more complex. As she became able to discrimi- 
nate between people, she confined this mouthing to her favorites, 
(136) 



Shinn.] TJie Development of a Child. 137 

and kissing appeared to be developed from it; but it was also done 
a great deal with no appearance of affection, merely rompingly; she 
would seize on a face that she could reach, as she was held in our 
arms or laps or crept over a lounge or bed beside us, and would 
mouth it with demonstrations of gayety. It was like a dog's desire 
to lick one's face, in caress or in frolic. 

A trick of trying to grasp with her mouth, even to reaching out 
with her head for objects, which attended the earlier stages of learn- 
ing to grasp, in the fourth month, seemed also connected with 
superior sensibility in the lips. 

In the ninth week she tried a good deal to get her fists into her 
mouth; before this she had sucked and mouthed them when they 
reached the mouth by chance. By the tenth week, she had them 
at her mouth all the time; by the twelfth, sucked her thumb and 
sometimes her fingers constantly, but was weaned from the habit by 
the use of a small, closed rubber nipple, which was then gradually 
discarded. After she could grasp, everything went to her mouth for 
a time, during the sixth month and on into the seventh; but the 
habit declined perceptibly in the seventh, and thereafter gradually 
disappeared. At a year old, she rarely put things to her mouth 
except to taste. A curious exception was that from the time she 
first had a chance to get at the ground (in the tenth month, 285th 
day) she desired to put sand, gravel, or pebbles in her mouth in 
examining, — whether to taste or feel I could not tell. This lasted 
certainly to the end of the year, if not longer; and again in the 
eighteenth month she was for several days resolute to put gravel in 
her mouth, and disobedient about it, — this may possibly have 
been connected with the fact that her teeth were visibly troubling 
her. Early in the fourteenth month after examining small new 
objects for many minutes with eyes and fingers, she would put 
them to her mouth, and was very persistent about doing it and dis- 
appointed when prevented. At the end of the twenty-first month 
there was for a few days a curious revival of the habit of putting 
various things into her mouth, and when pins were given her to 
stick in a cushion, or pease to shell, she would soon stuff them into 
her mouth, — an evidence how unsafe it is to trust to apparently 
fixed habits of babies in such matters, for no one can tell what un- 
expected whim will seize on a baby who "never puts things into 

his mouth," or "never touches the stove." 
'10 



log University of California. [Vol. r. 

In the last week of the twentieth month, 6oist day, I said to 
the child several times, "Look carefully," when she seemed about 
to make a mistake in naming the colors; and each time she lifted 
the cards to her lips, as if with some impulse to guide herself by 
the feeling. 

The first sign I saw of any special sensibility in the fingers was 
the 64th day, when I noticed a pretty way of holding her hands 
together, as if when they touched by accident the baby kept them 
together for the feeling of contact. 

The twelfth week, she fumbled with the tips of her fingers on a 
surface, as one's hand or dress, evidently with some intention. This 
developed slowly into grasping (under which head I hope to give 
more detailed notes of it), with a constant increase of evidence of 
special feeling in the fingers. After she learned to grasp, she habit- 
ually desired to touch things as well as to hold them; in especial, 
she often put up her fingers to touch our faces or hair. 

In the tenth month, 279th day, I saw her investigate an object 
with her forefinger tip, and thereafter noticed that either the fore- 
finger or thumb and forefinger were preferred in feeling, though I 
scarcely thought the preference as marked as in grown people. 
The use of the forefinger in pointing was developed during this 
month, and was apparently closely related to its special use in feel- 
ing. 

The earliest incident that showed sensibility at all noticeable m 
any part of the body besides lips or fingers was in the hand, I think 
the back of it; in the fourteenth week, I kissed her hand suddenly 
and it flew up as if by reflex, while her face showed surprise. About 
the same time she was amused — more than ever before — by 
rapid and loud kissing of her hands, across fingers and palm, as 
they rested half shut. 

In the fifth month, I32d day, she was deeply interested in a sen- 
sation of touch on the back of her head (see below, p. 143). From 
the twenty-third week to the end of the year from time to time she 
felt curiously with her fingers about her head and neck, — the 
interest doubtless depending on the double sensation, in finger tips 
and in the part touched. These incidents, as well as a number con- 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 1 30 

cerning- the amusement or annoyance excited by kisses on various 
parts of the body from the sixth month on, are given below, under 
other heads. So too see below concerning experiments in the sense 
of touch in the heels (p. 144). 

From the sixth month on, I noticed an occasional liking to press 
her face down against a person, perhaps to rub her nose. In the 
seventeenth month she liked to rub her face like a kitten, over our 
faces. 



2. Discrimination by Touch. 

Discrimination in touch sensations was for months shown only 
in special likings for one kind or another; and its first instance was 
her preference for hard, smooth objects during the early period of 
grasping, the fourth and fifth months. For feeling either with mouth 
or hands wooden or metal objects were preferred to soft ones. 
The use of the soft ball at this period for educational reasons, as 
recommended by kindergartners, seems defeated by the preference 
for surfaces that offer a very definite resistance, which I suspect to 
be the rule with babies in the first six months ; as well as by the 
greater ease with which the cylindrical form — a rattle's handle, 
e. g. — can be grasped. 

In the first year, the light touch of kisses on various parts of the 
face and body (she was never kissed on the mouth if we could pre- 
vent it) was usually regarded by the baby as very amusing. The 
first instance of this, in the fourteenth week, has been mentioned 
above ; and late in the sixth month she was repeatedly delighted, 
laughing aloud, at a rapid shower of kisses on her legs; in the same 
week she laughed at kisses on her neck, and in the eighth month she 
was very fond of being kissed there, and would hold her head on 
one side a long time to have it done, with an expression of enjoy- 
ment ; so at intervals to the end of the year. The first instance I 
note of her finding kisses annoying is in the nineteenth month, 
when she twice cried, '"Way!" (Go away), as I was about to kiss 
her; but during the twenty-second month she often showed annoy- 
ance at them, and I have noted sundry such protests as, " Don't 
kiss Ruth, — hurts!" " Don't kiss Ruth little baby hand!" once, 
" Don't eat Ruth neck ! " If it struck her as a frolic, she was amused 



I40 University of California. [Vol. i- 

as before; the 657th day, e. g., she was amused when her toes were 
kissed and asked me to "Kiss 'nother little baby foot," and the 
next evening when undressed offered her feet again and dictated 
ways in which she wished them kissed, — first one, then the other, 
then both together, on toes or heels. The next day, after declining 
to have her face kissed, she began to complain that " Ruth little 
knee hurt," and to hold it up to me. I asked if it wanted kissing, 
and she assented, and offered it several times afterward to be kissed, 
on the same plea, indicating the spot. 

In several other ways she showed about this time a marked 
annoyance at touches on the skin. In the twentieth month she 
objected even with crying — which was most unusual — to having 
a thermometer bulb applied to her leg. At the beginning of the 
twenty-second month, when her father took hold of her bare foot, 
she cried, "Papa, don't touch Ruth foot!" several times. In the 
last week of the month she lay down beside me to be entertained 
with rhymes and stories, and wished to press close to me, but 
refused to let me put my arm about her or touch her, saying 
crossly, "Don't!" — "Don't what?" — "Put arm on Ruth back." 
During the whole twenty-second month, in fact, restraint or med- 
dling, as putting hands on her or kissing, was the usual cause of a 
crossness that she not infrequently showed. "Don't! Go 'way!" 
she would say in scolding tones: once late in the month I kissed 
her hand v/hen she was already squirming to get away from her 
father, who wished to hold her, and she snatched her hand away 
fairly snarling, "Don't/" 

In the second week in the month her mother made a record 
that the child was walking against a wind that blew in gusts, and at 
each gust she would scold, " Stop ! Don't blow ! " 

In this irritability toward touches, so marked during one month, 
there was evidence of a heightened nervous susceptibility that was 
doubtless general and not confined to the sense of touch; it evi- 
dently included such mental elements as an increased feeling of per- 
sonality and independence. Thus in the last week of the month if 
her foot was touched or taken hold of, she would say in a tone of dis- 
pleasure, "That Ruth foot!" She was during the same month and 
most of the year not at all chary of her own kisses when in a 
mood of affection. 



shinn.] TJie Development of a CJiild. 141 

In the sixth month she was very fond of playing with strings, 
drawing them through her fingers; and during the seventh, she was 
more Hkely when taken in arms to reach for one's hair than to try 
to mouth one's face, — the finger sensation being now preferred to 
that of the Hps. During the eighth month the desire to finger and 
pull threads of hair was very great, and it lasted with some intervals 
at least to the twenty-first month ; by this time we had been obliged 
to break her of the habit. During all this time she would scarcely 
go to sleep in her mother's arms unless her fingers were moving in 
her mother's hair. Once in the twentieth month, when my hair 
was hanging after being washed, I allowed her to pull it a little, and 
she was very happy in doing so, eagerly threading her fingers 
through it and parting the strands. Even now in the middle of her 
fourth year, when she has long been accustomed to regarding it as 
forbidden, her hand will occasionally wander to our hair as she sits 
on our laps, and begin threading and puUing; the feeling seems to 
be exceedingly pleasing to her. 

In the ninth month she began to show recognition of differences 
in the feeling of surfaces, by signs of curiosity in novel ones. On 
the 248th day she felt carefully of her head in a new muslin cap, 
as if recognizing the change from the silk ones she had hitherto 
worn. The tenth month, 285th day, she was greatly interested in 
the novel surface of the gravel walk, which she had discovered by 
creeping to the edge of the lawn; she felt it over with finger-tips, 
and rubbed the smooth dirt at the edge to and fro several minutes 
before she began to carry it to her mouth. To the end of the year 
the surface of the ground, which she had been allowed little chance 
to feel, was an object of much curiosity, and every time she was 
allowed to touch it she investigated in the same way. When 
allowed the same day to creep up to trees, she felt of the bark with 
marked interest in the new surface. The eleventh month, 315th 
day, when taken in her uncle's arms, she rubbed her fingers over 
the shaven surface of cheek and chin, novel to her, with curiosity. 
So repeatedly from this time new surfaces of cloth, as a plush chair, 
a silk dress, were examined. Up to the end of the thirteenth month 
at least she would always notice a new texture in our dresses as 
soon as she touched them, and pass her fingers curiously over it. 



142 University of California. [Vol. i. 

In the fifty-fifth week the zinc around the kitchen stove attracted 
her attention, and she would drop down to rub her fingers over it. 
Once in the nineteenth month she was eager to get hold of a china 
rose, and when allowed to feel it, was silent with surprise at the 
unexpected hard surface. 

Her ability in the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth months to 
identify by feeling the solid forms she was familiar with, has been 
mentioned under Form. As early as the fourteenth month she 
could name my features, hands, or feet, on passing her hands over 
them in the dark, and move her hand quite straight to find them; 
but in the last week of the twenty-third month failed in an inter- 
pretation that required memory of more complex sight-impressions: 
feeling for me as I sat on a lounge in the dark, she found my 
feet resting on the floor, and said that I was under the lounge. 

Just at the close of the twenty-third month I was one night, in 
her parents' absence, sleeping in her mother's place beside her; 
before light she climbed into the bed from her crib; and though she 
touched my face and hair, she did not discover that it was not her 
mother till daylight; she was drowsy, it is true, yet even so the 
sense of hearing never failed to detect me at once when I spoke 
under such circumstances. 

3. Interest. 

The earliest interest distinctly shown — something more than 
simple pleasure in a touch — was in feeling her lips with her tongue, 
seventh week, as mentioned above; next, in getting her hands into 
her mouth, ninth week, and thereafter in putting objects into her 
mouth, and in mouthing faces. At just nine weeks appeared some 
vague interest in her fingers (see above) and from the twelfth week 
on in the things touched by them. 

The interest thus far was of a vague character; in the fifth month 
it first took the form of a definite and strong curiosity. Up to this 
time I had noticed over and over that the baby did not in any case 
look at the spot of any peripheral sensation, or put her hand to it 
(unless rubbing her eyes when sleepy, which she did from at least 
the beginning of the third month, be an exception) nor did she in 
any way seek the source of any touch sensation. She never looked 



shinn.] The Development of a Oiild. 143 

curiously at her hands when learning to grasp, as other childen do. 
On the I32d day, however, she was sitting in a horse collar on the 
floor, and bent herself over the back of it till the back of her head 
touched the floor. She righted herself and tried again, with her 
head turned sidewise as if to see what touched her. In this posi- 
tion she failed to reach the floor; she righted herself and tried again 
a full dozen times, looking at me in the intervals with an expres- 
sion of the greatest surprise and seriousness, which I could not dis- 
sipate by laughing and speaking encouragingly. Her father tried 
to divert her from the experiment; but as soon as he would let her 
alone, she would renew it. Finally, as she began to seem tired and 
troubled, her mother took her up. She kept up the same experi- 
ment for some days. 

About a month after this, 158th and ispth days, she chanced to 
touch the side and back of her head, and proceeded to feel them 
over with a grave air that was very comical. The i8ist day her 
hand came in contact with her ear ; she became at once very seri- 
ous, and felt it and pulled it hard; losing it, she felt about her cheek 
for it, but when her mother put her hand back, she had become 
interested in the cheek, and wished to keep on feeling that. Dur- 
ing the succeeding days, early in the seventh month, this feeling 
the side of her head, her ear, and cheek, was a habit; she also felt 
of her lips and gums with two or three fingers very seriously. The 
next month, 234th day, she ran her tongue far out and examined it 
with her fingers, putting them in as far as she could, and this was a 
habit for some days. To the end of the year, she would from time 
to time feel over her head, neck, hair, and ear; the hair she dis- 
covered in the eighth month, 222d day, while feeling for her ear, 
and felt it over and pulled it with great curiosity. In the eleventh 
month she had a habit of taking her head in both hands (placing 
them in the neighborhood of the parietal sutures), as if to estimate 
its shape and size, — a trick whose meaning was never clear to me. 

In the seventh month, 206th day, she rubbed her forefinger 
investigatingly with the thumb of the same hand (the left) looking 
at them ; but in general her hands did not attract her attention. 

If such investigations of her own features continued in the second 
and third years, they were not sufficiently noticeable to have kept 
my attention. 



144 University of California. [Vol. i. 

In the tenth month, when just forty weeks old, she chanced to 
be set on the carpet with stockinged feet, and began rubbing her 
heels on the carpet, laughing, apparently enjoying the friction. 
Thereafter till the twelfth month she would from time to time thus 
rub her heels, in soft kid moccasins, on the floor, especially on sur- 
faces not before tested, — matting, rug, etc., — as if feeling. After 
thicker shoes were put on her, in the twelfth month, I have no note 
of it. 

In the fourteenth and fifteenth months she was greatly interested 
in finding and feeling over objects in a dark closet, — the broom or 
drawer handles, e. g., — and then having the drawer opened and 
seeing them, and feeling over again with the aid of sight. The 
relation between the impressions given by the two senses seemed 
to appeal to her curiosity. 

In the seventeenth month, 498th day, having pulled at a twig 
that flew up and hit her nose slightly, she repeated the experiment 
some half-dozen times. In the nineteenth, 559th day, she amused 
herself by bumping her chin with the handle of a bronze dinner 
bell; she once did it harder than she meant to, and broke out cry- 
ing and complaining, but in a minute wanted the bell back and con- 
tinued the experiment more cautiously. 

Pain. 

I. Sensibility. 

Until the sixth month no hurt happened to the baby, and I 
made no experiments in the direction of her sensibility to pain. 
But there was at least one instance in which I should have ex- 
pected her to feel pain, and she evidently felt none. This was early 
in the fourth month, 97th day, when she began to pound the tray 
of her high chair with her right hand. She would pound rapidly 
four or five times, apparently hard enough to bruise, then after a 
few seconds repeat, — all with great satisfaction. To save her hand 
someone put into it a rattle, consisting of a sleigh bell set on a strong 
strip of rubber, and she continued pounding with this so strongly 
that the sleigh bell split and flew apart, on which, the broken rattle 
being removed, she went on gayly pounding with her own hand, 
as before. I certainly could not have struck my hand so hard 
without pain. Nor could the violence of the blow have been ap- 



Shinn.] The Dcvelopuient of a Child. 145 

parent onlj^, for the mechanical effect on the sleigh bell gave an 
unmistakable test; yet no bruise was visible on the baby's hand, 
which seemed incomprehensible, for whatever her insensibility to 
pain, I should have supposed the blows would have bruised the 
fat little hand by their mere physical effect. 

From the fourth month until she learned to creep the baby 
would raise her heels as she lay on her back, and bring them down 
with violence, enjoying it greatly. From the seventh month she 
destroyed her little kid moccasins thus. At just six months old, 
i82d day, she banged a small steel bell down hard on her leg again 
and again without any sign of pain. 

In the sixth month she received her first hurt, a deep, red 
scratch on her finger. She cried bitterly, but it seemed to be 
mainly with fright, and she was soon consoled, and never showed 
any discomfort from the wound after its first infliction. I observed 
the same thing thereafter invariably up to the twentieth month. 
Hurts seemed to leave no soreness in the skin, and were forgotten 
after the first cry, even while their physical traces remained. On 
the 28th day, e. g., some insect stung the baby's forehead, possibly 
a bee; but though she cried out sharply, she stopped the instant 
she w^as in her mother's arms, even before the spot had begun to 
redden, and though it swelled and showed for hours, she never 
thought of it again. Her cry seemed to have been more of fright 
than pain. 

From the time she began to roll about freely, in the eighth 
month, she bumped her head against the furniture almost daily, but 
often would not cry at all. She would look sober for a minute, 
then if laughed at, would smile and go on with her play, and when 
she did cry she was diverted with ease. Sometimes bumps suffi- 
cient to redden the skin produced no cry, especially if someone 
was at hand to speak an encouraging word. Once in the eighth 
month she thumped her nose and lips hard with a little bottle, 
without seeming to mind. For a few especially sharp bumps, and 
for a fall on her nose, and another that cut her lip so that it bled 
freely and puffed up (all these from the eighth month to the end of 
the year), she cried loud and hard, and was not readily consoled; 
but after the hurt had been relieved -she never recurred to it, and 
showed no sign that any soreness remained in the place. Yet in 



146 University of California. . [Vol. i. 

one of these falls she struck her forehead so sharply that the mark 
is distinct now, in the middle of the fourth year. 

In a single case she showed a sensitiveness that seemed equal 
to an older person's. This was when her nose was chafed with a 
cold, and she cried if it was wiped. Her skin is unusually thick 
and strong, and was never chafed except on this occasion in the 
first year, and perhaps three or four times in the second and third. 

After she had in rolling and the first creeping acquired some 
knowledge of bumps, she seemed more ready to cry over them, — 
whether because she grew more sensitive or more afraid. 

I never but once in the first year saw her show any sign of 
sensitiveness in her gums, even when the tooth was near the sur- 
face and the gum purple and swollen, and I was not sure on that 
occasion. She cried out three times when biting something hard, 
but each time there was something else that might have caused the 
cry. In the 77th week, however, when the back teeth were coming, 
her gums visibly troubled her, and her fingers were much in her 
mouth. 

In the fourteenth month, 399th day, she slipped her hand under 
a descending knife, and it took off about half the ball of her little 
finger. She cried for half an hour, but once consoled was very 
happy, and never made the least whimper over the finger again, 
though it was some two weeks in healing. So in sundry other 
instances in the second year, she either did not seem to mind a 
pain at all, or forgot it immediately. One incident in the seven- 
teenth month, 503d day, showed that a sharp pricking was felt, 
where duller pressure was not. She had been fretful all the after- 
noon; finally she began hitching and twisting in her clothes, and 
we found in her shirt, between her shoulder blades, a sharp prickle 
of barley beard, the result of playing in barley hay. When 
relieved of this she became much more cheerful, and, after she had 
had her dinner, was quite herself, and played about for an hour 
happily; yet when she was undressed, it was found that all this 
time her shoes and stockings had been full of sharp gravel, and the 
sides and soles of her little feet were deeply dented all over, without 
having caused her any apparent concern. A single pebble denting 
a sensitive grown person's foot as deeply would have made him 
uncomfortable, and the child's soles were not yet at all calloused. 



shinn.] The Development of a CJiild. 147 

In the twenty-fourth month, also, prickles from the barley hay in 
her stockings and drawers annoyed her almost to crying. 

In the twentieth month occurred the first instance in which a 
pain seemed to linger. She had burned her finger, through my 
carelessness in letting her put her hand on register pipes which 
were much hotter on one side than I had on testing found them on 
the other. She broke out crying inconsolably, and the usual diver- 
sions, such as taking her into another room, showing her objects, 
etc., did not prevent her recurring with rising sobs to her finger. 
This was doubtless in part because of the shock to her confidence 
in me, for, when I said in her hearing, "It was aunty's fault, too!" 
she repeated through her tears over and over, "Owgu fau', too!" 
and though she did not know the meaning of "fault," she would 
not have taken up the phrase while absorbed with her hurt if she 
had not in some sort guessed its bearing on the grievance. But 
her continued grief must have been also in part because the pain 
lasted, for she would look in a concerned way at her finger hours 
after if she chanced to hit or press it. 

A few notes of the second year record her crying for slight 
scratches or bumps, such as ordinarily she did not mind at all. 
The reasons of these inconsistencies were not easy to trace, but 
they are common enough at all ages, as everyone has experienced 
in his own case; they probably depended more on variation of general 
nervous irritability than on that of the special sense. 

In the third year I believed her sensibility to pain increased, but 
scarcely on evidence that I could formulate. My notes show the 
same rule of indifference to pain or quick forgetting of it, with 
occasional instances to the contrary. In the latter part of the 
twenty-fifth month she received a burn without — so far as we could 
learn — making any cry till she hurt the place some minutes later. 
She was creeping about under the table with her doll, and cried 
out. Her grandmother supposed she had hurt her hand on her 
doll, and the child stopped crying almost at once and went on with 
her play. Some fifteen minutes later I came downstairs, and taking 
her in my lap, asked what it was I had heard her crying about. 
She began to whimper a little, and said she had burned her hand. 
Where ? She indicated the back of her wrist. But where was she? 
what did she burn it on ? She did not understand, and kept saying, 



148 University of California. [Vol. i. 

"There," pointing to her wrist; so I asked, "Did you burn it on 
the fireplace ? or did you touch a hot poker ? or meddle with the 
lamp?" She answered in her jargon something in which I made 
out that it was the lamp, and it was her uncle's lamp. As I saw 
no burn, I set down the story as fiction, suggested by my question; 
but some minutes later, in a brighter light, I saw that her wrist was 
really blistered just where she had indicated. On being questioned, 
she repeated that she had burned it on her uncle's lamp. "Where 
was uncle's lamp?" — "On grandma's sewing machine" (in an 
adjoining room). He had, in fact, had it there a little while before 
she began to cry, and he remembered that she had run in and 
reached up, just touching its standard, and he had called to her 
that it would burn her, on which she had run away. About five 
minutes later she had cried out when under the table. Setting the 
lamp back on the machine, we called her in to show us how she 
had burned her. She reached her hands up in the air, and said, 
"Just so," reaching about to the standard, a foot or so below any 
place where she could have got a burn. Whether she had really 
climbed up unperceived and burned her hand on the lamp, or 
whether she had got the blister in some unobserved dive at the 
grate or poker, and confused this in memory with the warning 
about the lamp, we could not make out; but it was evident that it 
had not brought any cry at the time, nor until she rubbed or 
bruised the spot later. The knowledge that she was doing some- 
thing forbidden might have kept her silent for a slight hurt, but 
not for a really painful burn, such as an older person would have 
found this. 

In the twenty-eighth month she showed much reluctance to 
have a sore finger-tip dressed or meddled with, but in the thirtieth 
she let me take a sliver out of her finger with a pin, without the 
least resistance, and seemed scarcely to perceive the prick. In the 
thirty-sixth month she let me begin to take one out, but when the 
needle began to prick, she objected and drew away her finger. 
After a distinct explanation that it would hurt somewhat, but that 
she could be brave, she held her finger perfectly still and let me 
take it out. Later in the same month no flaftery about her bravery 
would prevail on her to permit a similar slight pricking. 

In the last week of the thirty-fourth month she had a bad fall. 



shinn.] llie Development of a Oiild. 140 

of perhaps eight or ten feet, on an asphalt floor, and, though she 
escaped grave injuries, her face was severely bruised. She cried 
most of the time for about an hour after this accident, until, what 
with nausea from the shock and some slight concussion of the 
brain, she became drowsy; but waking the next day almost free 
from these stupefying effects, still seemed surprisingly indifferent 
to the terribly cut, skinned, and bruised lips, which it would have 
cost a grown person real effort to endure with the cheerfulness she 
showed. She evidently did not awake to any consciousness of 
discomfort, for, as I was told, her first remark had nothing to do 
with it, but was about her kitten mewing outside, and the next 
morning she climbed merrily into her mother's bed, then putting 
up a finger to feel her lip, broke into a wail of disappointment, " It 's 
sore yet, mamma! " 

(In the fourth year she has grown visibly either more sensitive 
to hurts or more cautious about them, but on the whole takes them 
very easily.) 

The readiness with- which a slight sensation of pain was sub- 
ordinated by interest in the higher sensations, or in some mental 
employment, or even by pride in her courage, is evident in several 
of the above instances. It was noticeable even in the first year, 
when hurts were forgotten the instant a diversion, as going out- 
doors, was offered, and in the second and third year more marked 
instances occurred. For example, early in the seventeenth month, 
492d day, the child thrust her arm into a puppy's mouth, and 
accepted his playful but ungentle biting as most entertaining. One 
day in the eighteenth month she was much interested in thumping 
together two large glass marbles, but soon thumped a finger be- 
tween them. She cried loudly, gasping; but when her mother 
caught her up, she gasped out between her wails, "Ma'! ma'!" and 
it proved she was calling for one of the marbles, which had fallen, 
while the other remained tightly clutched in her little hand. When 
the missing one was picked up and handed her, she smiled and 
began beating them together again, and played thus with them at 
intervals for a long time, — an hour, perhaps. 

In the twenty-fourth month she persisted in running up to the 
dog and jerking his ear, till he snapped at her and grazed her hand- 



150 University of California. [Vol. i. 

When I reached her she was looking at her hand with pleased 
interest, and remarked to me, as if it had been meant for an enter- 
tainment, that " Ruth did pull Muzhik and Muzhik did bite Ruth a 
little." She repeated this over and over to members of the family, 
and was determined to run back and try the experiment again. 
Even punishment would not keep her from it, and in the end the 
dog was sent away. In like manner in the thirty-second month 
she was absorbed in interest in the cats, and as there chanced to 
be no gentle cat about, she wished all day to run after some half- 
wild ones, indifferent to scratches. On one occasion she thrust her 
hand into a bush after the cat, turned around to call to me, "Kitty 
did 'catz me a little bit," then dived into the bush again, and, as I 
came to her, looked up and added, "Kitty did 'catz me again," and 
showed a second sharp red scratch on her finger, then wished to be 
allowed to make a third attempt to get hold of the cat. 

Her indifference to pain compared to her desire to follow her 
occupations, had some amusing illustrations when her mother began 
to discipline her by its use in the second year. The first instance 
of this that I find recorded was in the sixteenth month, 478th day, 
when the child persisted in snatching at the poker, till her mother 
tried to stop it by snapping her fingers. She would whimper, but 
as soon as released would run to the poker with an air of roguish 
persistence. The second time it happened she ran to me, looking 
up pleadingly as if for backing, and holding up her fingers to be 
kissed. One day in the twenty-second month the threat of a 
spanking for kicking her heels against the lounge did not stop 
her, and her mother slapped her leg. She set up a small factitious 
cry, and whimpered, "Little leg hurt! Poor little leg! Have 
kiss!" and after soliciting kisses for it from her mother and 
grandfather, went back and kicked again, testing her mother. 
Slapped more sharply, she desisted, crying in real earnest, but 
without resentment. Once, however, earlier in the same month, 
her mother slapped her cheek for mischievously biting, and .the 
child cried in earnest, kept indicating her cheek with her finger as 
if it smarted, and did not stop till the interesting sound of the water 
running out of the bathtub diverted her attention. 

During the first year the skin seemed entirely insensitive to 
mosquito bites; by the fifteenth month she found them annoying, 
and in the third year they caused great irritation. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Cliild. 151 



2. Interest. 

While pain — up to a certain point — was very easily subordi- 
nated to more mental interests in the child's attention, it yet seemed 
to me to rouse in her a kind of interest as an experience that no 
other sensation did; it was more self-conscious than any other, — 
as perhaps it is in everyone, and necessarily. The earliest evidence 
I saw of this was in a certain power of the imagination over it; her 
idea of the hurt could be easily exaggerated by sympathy, or her 
memory of it confused by suggestion coming from herself or others. ^ 

Thus in the latter part of the thirteenth month, 390th day, she 
fell and bumped her chin, and was brought upstairs to me to be 
consoled. I took her in my lap and said sympathetically: "Did 
Ruth fall down and hurt her ? Poor little girl ! " Her face assumed 
a very rueful look. "Where did it hurt her? " She put her hand 
on h&Y forehead, the place where she usually got her bumps. " Shall 
aunty kiss it ? " She nodded and was comforted. I tried this three 
times again during the afternoon, and each time she looked rueful, 
and indicated the same spot on her forehead as having been bumped. 

The efficacy of the remedy of kissing in all cases of slight injury 
— even when the kiss was philosophically administered by herself — 
is another illustration of the close connection of imagination with 
this particular sensation. 

In the middle of the fourteenth month, 408th day, she burned 
her tongue, seizing too hastily upon her potato. Next day she 
showed little memory of it, could not tell where she burned her, 
and was not interested in the subject; but three days later, when 
the conditions were repeated, the potato before her again, and her 
mother warned her, "Wait, — it is hot," I asked, "Does n't Ruth 
remember how the potato burned her?" and she nodded and put 
her finger to her mouth to indicate the spot. As late as the 446th 
day, hearing someone speak of burns, she put her finger to her 
mouth with a rueful sound, to indicate that that was where she was 



^It is to be considered here, however, that suggestion was brought to bear 
on this sensation as it was on no other, through our sympathizing or our 
making light of hurts. 



1^2 University of California. [Vol. i. 

burned. But as a rule she could at this time remember being hurt, 
but not the place where she hurt herself! In the first week of the 
fifteenth month, 429th day, having bitten her tongue or finger, she 
put on a crying face and Hngered on the verge of crying, looking 
at her mother and me and visibly making demand on us, till I went 
around the table to "kiss the place." She could not show me 
where it was, and did not seem to understand till I went back to 
my seat, then she held up the thumb and wished me to kiss that 
and all the other fingers, and was not satisfied till I did this for 
both hands.^ Possibly the sense of location in her feelings was 
weak, and easily lost. This may have had to do with an incident 
of the twenty-sixth month, when she was sleepy and fretful at 
dinner, crying and saying that her leg hurt her in a certain place 
which she indicated, though no sign of trouble could be found 
there. She got over the grievance without visible cause, and was 
very sunny. 

The next indication of the way in which her mind occupied 
itself v/ith the sensation of pain was a curiosity concerning it, and 
a disposition to experiment with it and dramatize it, — experiment 
and pretense being so mixed that I cannot separate them. 

This I first noticed in the fourteenth month. We had been in 
the hatjit of warning her against sharp articles, as pens and scissors, 
by showing her with gentle pricks and demonstrations of concern 
how they would "hurt the baby." She would now beg us to do 
this when she caught sight of the articles. In the fifteenth month 
she was very fond of pricking herself — sometimes sharply — with 
a hairpin, or pencil, or a pin begged for the purpose, and she wished 
us to pretend to be much concerned. This was in part mere imi- 
tation of our small drama with the scissors or pens; but within the 
month, about a week later, she began to dramatize bumping he 
head in like manner, knocking it carefully against something ana 
coming to have it kissed. She was very persistent at this, and 
would keep it up till her forehead was quite red, laughing over it 



^ It is likely that the behavior in this particular instance was due to curiosity, 
to mere freak, possibly to a vague following out of suggestion, rather than to 
real confusion as to the place of the hurt. 



shinn.] TJie Development of a Chud. 153 

with the utmost delight. These two pretenses, or experiments, 
were favorite amusements for six weeks at least, with recurrences 
later; and when her mother pretended to sympathize and kiss the 
place, the child would laugh aloud till she was tired out. In the 
sixteenth month she pretended to pinch her finger in a folding rule, 
deliberately thrusting it in, then holding it out to be kissed; and 
at another time, touching by chance a potato that was not hot, she 
began to complain and hold up her finger to be kissed, and so sev- 
eral times would touch the potato, draw back with a whimper, and 
hold out the finger. 

She wished also to try these experiments on others, and doubt- 
less got some valuable material of consciousness from the difference 
between the sensations when the subject was herself and when it 
was another. My first note of this is in the fourteenth month. 
She was trying experiments in pain on herself with a sharp hairpin, 
and unexpectedly turned and tested it on me, and my movement 
and exclamation delighted her greatly. Late in the eighteenth 
month, the 539th day, she seized my hand and pinched the skin 
on the back sharply. When I remonstrated, she admonished 
me by a little squeal of what she wished me to do. Finding me 
unsatisfactory, she pinched her own hand and gave the little 
squeal herself at each pinch; but soon desisted, apparently not 
liking the feeling. In the nineteenth month, 556th day, she wished 
to beat and scratch my face, and when I would not allow it she 
experimented on her own face quite severely, without seeming to 
mind. 

For a couple of weeks at the end of the fourteenth and begin- 
ning of the fifteenth month, she would bump her doll's head and 
bring it to be kissed. 

Once in the twenty-first month, 630th day, she examined pity- 
ingly a completely healed scratch, and observed that her little 
thumb was sore. 

As the child was not in general imaginative or imitative, these 
things indicated the more decisively that the exciting and dramatic 
nature of the whole episode of being hurt — the pain, the outcry, 
the hastening to console — had made a marked impression on her. 
With this, too, was doubtless in part connected the crying self- 
consciously as a bid for sympathy, which was somewhat common 
11 



154 University of California. [vol. i. 

from the ninth month, and appears in several incidents under various 
heads/ 

TEMPERATURE SENSE. 

In the first year the baby was never allowed to experience any 
avoidable variation fi'om an equable warmth, and I have record 
only that she never gave any sign of discomfort if her hands or feet 
grew cold, nor in unusual heat. She was always overjoyed on hot 
days (in the second six months) to have part of her clothes off, but 
the feeling of muscular freedom had much to do with this. I 
noticed on one excessively warm day in the eleventh month that 
she showed no fretfulness or languor from the heat, — which was 
hard for grown persons to support, — but continued to creep, stand, 
and scramble about with her usual inexhaustible activity, while the 
perspiration stood in drops on her face, and her hair was wet. She 
rejoiced intensely, however, in having her face and hands bathed 
in cool water. S'everal times in the second year I thought her irri- 
table or depressed on a hot day; yet on other such days I noticed 
nothing of the sort. 

The first indication of dislike of the general sensation of cold- 
ness and desire to be protected, may have been in the last week of 
the nineteenth month, when she insisted on being tucked up closely 
in bed, saying, "Co'. Wom." (I am cold. I must be made warm.) 
I thought, however, that this was rather imitation than a real state- 
ment of her sensation, and she did not seem cold. In the first week 
of the twenty-third month, Avhile driving one day, her mother sug- 
gested that she have her mittens on. "Yes, Ruth hand be [will be] 
cold," the child answered. The same night her father came home 
and found her in bed, and after sitting up to let him kiss her, she 
wished to be covered up again and let alone, and said, "Ruth get 
cold." She began in the twenty-fourth month to cover up her doll 

^ Notes on organic pain may best be placed liere, for tiie sake of complete- 
ness. The child's health has been so perfect, however, that there is prac- 
tically nothing to record under this head. During the first two months she 
was a few times fretful with colic, and once cried hard, but was always quite 
easily relieved ; and once near the end of the tenth month she had colic, and 
made a great fuss, crying for an hour or two with short, sharp cries, as if in 
great pain. The indications were, however, that it was not a severe colic, 
and that she was a good deal affected by fright at the unaccustomed sensation. 
I find no other note concerning organic pain. 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 155 

lest it should get cold, and this was for at least three months a 
persistent play, holding its own over other forms of pretending to 
a marked degree. When she piled up books once in the twenty- 
seventh month, she commented, "Milicent, I going to build nice 
house, so I keep nice and warm. Milicent! Milicent! Milicent! 
I going to build nice, warm house." Whether in all this there was 
anything more than imitation, — any indication that the sensation of 
general coldness had made an impression on her, and interested her 
in the idea of shelter from it, I very much doubt. In a hundred 
cases she wished to run about without wraps in cold air, even when 
her hands had grown cold to the touch. 

The first instance of sensitiveness to a local cold touch that I 
noticed was in the seventeenth month; but thfe sensitiveness would 
doubtless have appeared much earlier had any experiment been 
tried. On this occasion the child mischievously spilled some water 
from a cup, according to a troublesome trick she had at the time. 
As it chanced, she had called for a drink at a moment when she 
was naked, and the cold drops trickled unexpectedly down the 
front of her body. She sprang up with comical surprise and dis- 
may, dropping the cup, and ran across the room, crying, " Spill ! 
spill!" and pointing out with both forefingers the course of the 
injury; and she was for some time broken of the trick of spilling 
water. Yet in the twenty-first month, when bathed in the large 
bath, she liked to have the cold water faucet turned on, and to stand 
near it and thrust her body or knee forward, so as to be just grazed 
by the stream. She would shrink back laughing, then invite the 
little cold shock again. 

In the last week of the nineteenth month, the 574th day, her 
mother told me she put the child in a bath at 98° Fahr., her usual 
bath being 88°. The child at once said, " Hot!" and "Burn baby!" 
and was unwilling to sit down and splash ; but otherwise did not 
object to it, and cried when taken out. The next day the warm 
water failed by some accident, and her bath was 10° too cold, — 78° 
instead of 88°. The instant she was put in she looked a little dis- 
mayed, then said, " Cold!" Urged to sit down, she hesitated, then 
slipped and fell, her face going partly under water. What with 
cold, astonishment, and slight strangling, she did not like it much; 



156 University of California. [Vol. 1. 

and though she walked about in the water without exactly objecting, 
she responded readily to my suggestion that I should take her out. 
When she found the bath was over prematurely, she began to 
whimper and beg, "Bath more! " Reminded that it was too cold, 
and asked if she wanted to go back into it, she said, "No," but 
began to beg again for her bath, and seemed keenly disappointed 
at the spoiling of it. 

In the last week of the twentieth month, climbing up on a bench 
warmed by the sun, she commented, " Wom! " as soon as her knee 
was fairly on it. On the 627th day, late in the twenty-first month, 
as I sat with her on a flat cellar door that was partly in the sun, 
she asked, "Aunty sit here? " pointing out a sunny place. — "No, I 
will sit down over here, thank you," I said. — "That cool?" she 
asked. — "Yes, it is cool here, and very warm over there." — " That 
warm?" she asked again, then came over and felt the boards by 
me. — " Don't you feel that it is cool ? " I asked. — " No." " Go feel 
over there where the sun is shining, and see how warm it is." She 
obeyed, and when I asked, "Is n't it warm? " answered, "Yes." 

Late in the twenty -third month she experimented on the warm 
lamp shade, touching it with her finger-tip and saying, "That hot;" 
then she picked up one of her large wooden beads and applied it 
to the shade, then felt it, and said, "That don't get hot." 

In the third year she rather disliked milk, and drank it only 
under some urgency. Once in the latter part of the thirtieth month, 
shortly after she had thus reluctantly swallowed a little, I asked 
her, " Why are you wriggling so, Ruth ? " — " That milk makes my 
stomach cold." 

In the first week of the thirty-third month she once had a hot 
water bag at her feet on account of an indigestion. The next night 
she wanted the bag again, but rather as a whim than because of 
real liking for the sensation, for she soon begged to have it at her 
head, saying that her head was cold, and that sometimes when her 
mamma had a headache she had the hot water bag at her head. 
However, she often asked for the bag after that, and seemed really 
to enjoy the feeling. 

In the thirty-fourth month, when camping beside a Sierra river, 
her mother noted her comment after experience of the water, "That 
water is very awfully cold ! " 



Shinn.] ' TJlc Development of a CJiild. 157 

OTHER DERMAL SENSATIONS. 

From the earliest months the baby seemed sensitive to the 
feehng of wetness, and unless strongly diverted invariabl-y com- 
plained at once if her clothes were wet; her bath, however, was 
from the very first one of her most intense enjoyments. In the 
nineteenth month she objected to kisses that they were "wet." 

-In this same month, seeing a high light on a black silk dress, 
she cried, "Wet!" and was surprised on feeling it, and commented, 
"Wet? no?" Thereafter she would try to find by feeling whether 
the grass was wet, and would rub her hands on it, but then look at 
them to see if they were wet, not trusting to feeling. In the twenty- 
first month she would ask, "That grass dry?" before stepping on 
it, and bend down to rub it with her little hand, as she had seen 
us do; and if it was decidedly wet, she could tell, and would say, 
"That grass wet." The last day of the twentieth month she 
observed, "Hands wet! " after dipping them in the bath tub. 

Tickling her was not usually allowed; nevertheless, in the early 
part of the seventeenth month, her grandfather tickled her a few 
times, and she took ecstatic delight in the sensation. She would 
throw herself back in her grandmother's lap, offering her chest and 
neck, and beg him to do it. When he did it, she would shout with 
laughter that seemed not reflex but genuine; and when after half 
a dozen times he desisted, she begged her grandmother and me to 
continue it. 

WORDS OF DERMAL SENSATION. 

It has seemed to me best, for the sake of easier comparison, to 
bring together here all notes concerning the expression in language 
of the sensations of this group, rather than to distribute them under 
the several heads. 

In the thirteenth month the child seemed to understand the 
words, "Hurt the. baby," or "Burn the baby," for she would avoid 
the stove when thus warned, and was satisfied when denied sharp 
things with the explanation that they would hurt. In the same 
month she seemed to understand the question, "Where did it 
hurt?" for she answered by indicating a place. 

The words of temperature sensation, cold and warm ("coo" 
and ".wow," later "co'" and "worn"; were the first used, in the 



1 5 8 University of California. [Vol. i. 

fifteenth month, but I doubted if they were used with any com- 
prehension: zvarni, e.g., may have meant being covered up in bed, 
cold being uncovered. The direction, "Warm your hands," was 
obeyed by holding them up to the fire. In the eighteenth month 
the child said, "Warm," when her wraps were put on, when covers 
were spread over her, and when she held her hands to the fire or 
saw something placed near it; and, "Hot," when her food was too 
hot, or she was thinking of touching the stove. She would look 
at her mush and ask, "Too ho'? — Tooco'? — De ri' [just right]?" 
This formula was picked up from her mother's comments when 
testing the water of the bath. She understood perfectly when told 
her food was "too hot," and did not wish to touch it. The first 
time, however, that I was certain she associated the words cor- 
rectly with the sensations was Avhen she used them of her bath in 
the last week of the nineteenth month (p. 155). There was no doubt 
that after this she used the words intelligently when commenting 
on a warm or cold contact; but whether the somewhat different use 
in "Little bit cold outdoors" (twenty-first month) and "Wind cold" 
(twenty- fourth month) was much more than echo, I cannot tell. 
See also the use of Iwt to describe a disagreeable taste in the 
nineteenth month (p. 162). 

Meanwhile the words bump, burn, and scratch had appeared, 
the one in the fifteenth month, the others in the sixteenth. How 
far they described sensations it is hard to say: the child would put 
her hand to her head in saying, "Bump," and show a burn or 
scratch in naming these injuries. When //<?/ was acquired, in the 
eighteenth month, it was closely associated with btirn, and usually 
used with it: thus, "Hot. — Burn," would be said of a stove. The 
word hot may easily have been to the child's mind descriptive of a 
pain sensation rather than of a temperature one. The first general 
expression of pain in words was an indirect one: in the twenty- 
second month the child would say, if scratched or bumped, "Poor 
Ruth! O poor Ruth!" But a week later, in the same month, the 
general word hurtwzs, acquired, and the indirect expression dropped. 
Hurt was used both actively and passively: "Hurt Ruth head," 
"Ruth lip hurt." A slight tendency at first to use it loosely of 
any disagreeable feeling was shown by the protest, " Don't kiss 
Ruth, — hurts;" but this was the first day the word was used, 
and did not continue. Sore appeared in the twenty-first month. 



shinn.j TJie Development of a Child. 159 

I/F^/ appeared in the nineteenth month, and diym the twentieth. 

The first word of touch sensation, smooth, also appeared in the 
twentieth, but the only instance I have of its use referred to smooth- 
ness perceptible by the eye rather than by touch. The general 
word feel was used in the last week of the month, but only when 
referring to organic sensation, as "feel better," "feel sick," and to 
the act of feeling with the finger. I did not notice it in any phrase 
clearly referring to dermal sensations (as "feel cold," "feel sore," 
"feel smooth") within the second year. 

NOTES BY MRS. BEATTY. 

In the fourth month my boy began to feel over surfaces with his fingers, — 
my dress, the lounge cover, (Ti4th day), the wood of a chair back, (riyth day). 

In the eleventh month, having his face washed, nose wiped, or nails cleaned, 
was excessively disagreeable to him. 

In the eighth month, 236th day, he bumped his head, and at once put his 
hand to it — to the spot of the injury, his nurse, who stood nearer him than I, 
told me — and rubbed it. In the eleventh month once he hurt his hand in 
creeping, and cried ; and when I picked him up he held the injured hand in 
the other, as if to show me where he was hurt. A few days earlier, however, 
at the beginning of the same month, having received a bump over which he 
cried vigorously, he called attention to it by pointing his finger not to the spot 
hurt, but to the place on the wall where he had bumped it. 

A little bruise over his eye, received in a fall from the lounge on the 227th 
day (eighth month) seemed to remain sore for some time, judging by his 
behavior when I touched it. But mental diversion easily superseded physical 
pain Tin the eleventh month, e. g.,a. visit to the kittens would stop the hardest 
cry over a bump, etc. 

In the second month the baby cried vigorously when the water of his bath 
was too hot. 

In the ninth month, 255th day, as I was giving him a spoonful of water, a 
drop fell on his hand, and he immediately looked down to see what it was. 



TASTE. 

I. Sensibility. 

No early experiments in taste were tried with the baby. On the 
28th day a Httle sugar was given her to stop hiccoughs, and she 
seemed to hke it; on the 42d day it was received with a grimace but 
swallowed readily; and, rather oddly, water was received in the same 
manner. This seems to have been the same grimace, suggestive of 
nauseous bitterness, that Preyer and others have noted as common 
with babies on experiencing a novel taste. During tlie fifth and 
sixth months the baby's grandmother several times gave her a small 
taste of something novel, — not enough to swallow, but merely to be 
tasted on the tongue, — but the grimace did not appear again for 
several weeks: for instance, on the 127th day, when she was allowed 
to suck a bit of apple, the baby's face showed only pleased surprise, 
and she sat perfectly still and sucked till the morsel was taken away. 
On the 173d day, however, the grimace reappeared at a taste of 
meat-soup; and thereafter to the end of the seventh month it was 
common. It became rare in the eighth, and I noticed it but twice 
in the ninth, and once in the tenth; never thereafter.^ 

As has been observed by others, this grimace had no connection 
with repugnance to the taste, and was sometimes followed by signs 
of Hking and desire: thus at the end of the sixth and beginning of 
the seventh months, orange juice was sucked with eagerness, desired 
when the fruit was seen, and mourned for when taken away, yet was 
grimaced over extravagantly. Nor did there seem to be any rule 
as to the kind of taste that excited it. It was perhaps more com- 
mon when fruit juice was tasted, but it failed to appear (seventh 
month, 209th day) at the first taste of loquat, and in several other 
cases; while on the other hand it did appear for the first taste of 
soup and of broth (late in the sixth month), and about the same 
time a piece of bread-crust was chewed and licked with grimaces. 

iMrs. Beatty's boy at eight months, on trying a new taste (milk and 
scalded bread), shuddered after each spoonful, though he took the food wilh- 
out resistance. 

(160) 



Shinn.] TJie Development of a Child. i6i 

The two instances noted in the ninth month were caused by clear 
lemon juice, a sufficiently startling taste, but the one instance in 
the tenth month by baked potato. Nor was it even associated reg- 
ularly with novelty : thus peach juice and strawberry juice did not 
excite it the first time tasted, but the second ; soup and bread-crust 
excited it the first time, but never again; sugar repeatedly; orange 
juice always for weeks. 

In the latter part of the fifth month, 141st day., when first the 
baby was given food in a bottle, she made much objection to it, we 
thought because the nipple was of fresh rubber, as the same food 
had been readily taken for three days with a spoon. Early in the 
sixth month, 154th day, she several times carried a bright celluloid 
ball, which had a strong celluloid taste and smell, to her mouth, 
and each time dropped it at once in a marked manner. Unless 
these were instances, she never in the first year showed any percep- 
tion of disagreeable tastes. She was sometimes averse to taking 
food, — in the eighth month, e. g., she would drop her jaw to let a 
mouthful of milk trickle out; but this was due to want of appetite 
rather than to distaste. She was not, it is true, tested with dis- 
agreeable tastes; but several things were incidentally tasted that she 
might have been expected to find disagreeable, and no repugnance 
was shown. Clear salt she did not notice at all (eighth month, 
228th day); sweet oil she took without objection (236th and 237th 
day); lemon she seemed rather to like (ninth month, 255th and 260th 
days); at ten months old (304th day) she touched her tongue to a 
spoon that had contained bitters, and showed no dislike; in the 
eleventh month she liked to put clear dirt into her mouth; in the 
last week of the year (361st day) she took pleasure in mouthing a 
green orange, though she could hardly have failed to taste the pun- 
gent oil of the skin. These things seem to suggest that her sense 
of taste was dull, but the great joy she showed in certain tastes and 
her distinct preferences among them contradict the inference. Of 
these preferences I shall speak more in detail below. 

In the second year also there was little outside these strong- 
likings to show any keenness of taste. In the thirteenth month, 
she seemed to like any novelty well enough. In the fourteenth, 
she sputtered out soap, but did not show much displeasure. The 



1 62 University of California. [Vol. i. 

first time she commented on any taste with disapproval was in the 
eighteenth month, when she chewed the hulls of some pecan nuts, 
which have a disagreeable strong flavor much like that of walnut 
hulls. She had been told that she would not like shaddocks, as they 
were sour; and when I took the pecan hulls from her mouth she 
observed, " Shou '; '' yet she was interested in the taste and very will- 
ing to try more of it. The next day while eating a cooky she saw and 
desired an orange, and I gave it to her. She proceeded to eat them 
alternately, apparently not finding that the cooky made the orange 
sour in the least. In this eighteenth month, too^ the old wish to put 
dirt into her mouth recurred quite persistently. In the nineteenth 
month she objected to a medicine when first tasted that it was 
"hot," then that it was "sour" (a cough syrup, probably with a 
little wild cherry flavor), and would drop her jaw and let it trickle 
out. A small bribe of hoarhound candy easily overcame her objec- 
tion, and she took the medicine cheerfully thereafter, and seemed to 
lose all distaste for it. In the twentieth month she did not like the 
taste of an oldish mango, and said it was "sour." Early in the 
twenty-fourth month her mother noted that she said of something 
she did not like, "That nasty." 

In spite of these slight exceptions, it seemed to me until about 
the middle of the third year that the child liked all tastes well 
enough, though some she liked much more than others. At the 
beginning of the thirty-second month I note that this omnivorous- 
ness is now past and there are many things she refuses. In the 
thirty-fifth month I gave her some dill to taste: she said, "I don't 
like it; it's medicine." Her experience with medicine had been so 
very slight that I was surprised, and asked what medicine she had 
had that she didn't like. She said some medicine of her uncle's, — 
some white medicine. — Who gave it to her? — "I got it myself" — 
On inquiry I found she had got hold of a pill and licked the coat- 
ing off Fennel she liked better: she swallowed it and said, "I like 
that down in my stomach." 

By the time she was three years old, she became very shy of 
trying new tastes, and at present, in the fourth year, seems to expect 
that a novelty will be disagreeable and refuses it, — sometimes even 
when we assure her it is good ; she seems to be guided a good deal 
in this by its appearance. Earlier, she was always ready to try any 
taste. 



shinn.j The Development of a Child. 163 

In the first year, and to a much less extent in the second, novelty 
seemed to be a main element of pleasure in taste sensations. Thus 
when the baby was first allowed, in the eighth month (216th day), 
to eat a little meat-soup and cream, which she had barely tasted 
before, she called for it with eager cries and made sounds of delight 
and content at each spoonful, looking up at her father and smiling; 
and when at just nine months old she again had this food, she 
showed similar joy: but it was now continued regularly, and within 
six weeks she no longer cared for it, and has never been especially 
desirous of it since. At eight months she took great pleasure in 
chewing a bread-crust — clung to it and would not be parted — and a 
few days later was consoled Avhen bitterly grieving for a fruit by a 
crust; but after tasting a pretzel some two weeks later ceased to 
care much for crusts, and cared still less for them in the next month, 
after trying graham flake crackers. After about a month more, by the 
middle of the eleventh month, she tired of the crackers and returned 
to bread and toast crusts. During the ninth and tenth months 
especially her appetite was not good, and any change, as from oat- 
meal to wheatina, from this to germea, and back again, seemed to 
wake a new pleasure in her food, and also to make it agree with her . 
better. Her first real considerable pleasure in eating came with her 
adoption of varied diet earlier than is usually advised. But other 
considerations besides taste doubtless entered into all this. 

In one instance there was a reversal of the rule that articles of 
food were liked best while new to her. When sweet potato was 
first offered, at the end of the eleventh month, and for nearly a 
month, the baby cared little for it; then became extremely fond of 
it, and for about a month more preferred it to anything else, and 
would squeal and clamor for it; in the fourteenth month she became 
indifferent to it and preferred Irish potato. 

2. Special Preferences. 

A good deal has been indicated above as to the child's discrim- 
inations in taste. Her principal one, however, was in the way of 
preferences in food: and while appetite and digestion as well as 
taste doubtless entered into these preferences, and idiosyncrasies of 
no general interest affected them, it seems necessary to any full 
record of the development of the sense that I give some account of 
them here. 



164 University of California. [vol. i. 

The milk diet of the early months seems never to have given 
much pleasure to the sense of taste, and to have been desired for 
the satisfaction of hunger only. Cow's milk or diluted cream, with 
which after the fifth month the mother's milk was supplemented, 
was still less liked, though this seemed largely due to dislike of 
being fed with a bottle or spoon. After milk became but one article 
in a varied diet, by the end of the first year, the child liked it well 
enough but never showed especial pleasure in it, and at times ever 
since has refused it persistently, wishing to drink water instead, 
(Her craving for water at times through the second and third years 
has been remarkable; she would ask for it over and over at meals 
and between meals, — three times in a half hour I noticed once, 
when she was not in the least feverish, — and drank really large 
quantities.) 

The gruels and porridges with which the milk diet was varied 
in the ninth month were usually, as noted above, much liked when 
first tried, but had to be changed often to keep up the child's appe- 
tite at all. From the eleventh month through the second year 
various grain foods (including bread and crackers), with Irish and 
sweet potato, formed the principal part of her diet, and in the third 
year these foods and meat; and at times she showed much pleasure 
in them, while at times she was indifferent to them. One or another 
article would be favored for a time in a marked degree. Vegeta- 
bles other than ootato were rarely liked; but celery was passionately 
desired 

Sweetness did not seem at first to please much. At the first 
tastes of clear sugar, on the 28th and 42d days, no decided sign of 
liking was given. At four months old the baby was fond of suck- 
ing a rattle handle that was made of orris root. In the fifth and 
sixth months the mother thought milk was better liked when 
unsweetened. In the whole of the first year sugar is never men- 
tioned among the things that gave noticeable pleasure. The day 
the child was fifteen months old she started to climb the stairs to 
me, calling me. " But you have the hiccoughs," her grandmother 
said. She knew this meant a bit of candy and looked back toward 
it, then upstairs, and pushed on to me. Once upstairs she would 
not take any hint that she should go down and get the candy. 



Shinn.] The Development of a CJiild. 165 

After this she became much fonder of candy, and begged for it 
when it was about. Cookies, dates, figs, sugar on her rice, etc., are 
hereafter mentioned among things she hked, and in general sweets 
are several times in my notes of the second and third year men- 
tioned as among her very greatest desires. 

Fruit was earlier and on the whole better liked than pure sweets.^ 
The first distinct pleasure the baby ever showed in a taste was 
when she first tasted fruit j uice ( 1 27th day, see p. 1 60). Perhaps once 
or twice a month in the next three months she was given a mere 
taste of some fruit juice, and it was always liked. Near the end of 
the tenth month she was allowed to suck fruit through a thin cloth 
every few days, and by the end of the year almost daily; baked 
apple or pear or stewed apple sauce was also added to her meals. 
This is contrary to the usual rules for babies' diet, but was approved 
by the doctor consulted, and seemed under the closest watching to 
have only good effects; the fruit was of course fresh from the trees 
and most carefully chosen. It was always liked : most new tastes 
after the eighth month were tried with grave interest, but fruits 
with laughter and demonstrations of joy; and even after the taste 
ceased to be novel the joy would often be shown, less excitedly. 
For example, in the eleventh month the child would suck her peach 
with a happy, serene expression, looking about at us from time to 
time and smiling, or calling to attract our notice to her pleasure. 
At times the enjoyment of some other article of food would equal 
that of fruit, but never for long. At various times in the second or 
third year, fruit and going outdoors are mentioned as the child's 
two great and dominant objects of desire, though fruit held the 
second place. In the thirteenth month, e. g., when she knew she 
was to have a piece of watermelon to suck or that she was to 
go outdoors, she would break into laughter and cries of approval, 
which would increase as she saw the preparation, and would be 
accompanied by lively springing motions. By the third year she 
was allowed to eat fruit quite freely, sometimes two or three oranges 
a day. 

She preferred fruits with a somewhat lively and characteristic 

^ In modification of the evidence my notes seem to give of this, it should be 
said that fruit was so much more freely allowed the child than sweets, that she 
got into the habit of asking and expecting it more. 



1 66 University of California. [Vol. i. 

taste, even an acid one, to those of a flat sweetness. As early as 
the ninth month, when I 'twice let her touch her tongue to a piece 
of lemon (255th and 260th days) she reached her hands for more; 
in the eighteenth month she ate a piece of lemon as big as the end 
of my thumb and to my astonishment asked for more; in the 
twenty-second month she sucked a lemon and said, "Good!" and 
from her first experience of it, in the twenty-sixth month, she has 
been fond of lemonade, which she never cared to have highly 
sweetened. Oranges, loquats, peaches, plums, and raspberries were 
better liked than apples or pears, and for the sweet but tasteless 
Japanese persimmon she cared little. 

The only cases of memory in taste that I recorded were in con- 
nection with fruit. In the eleventh month, 309th day, fully a month 
after the season of loquats, the baby discovered a bunch of half- 
dried ones (the fruit dries up, like raisins, instead of decaying) on 
the tree; she pointed to them squealing and was intensely eager to 
get them, and absorbed in joy and expectation while I peeled them 
for her. In the fifteenth month, 434th day, at least six weeks after 
watermelons were gone, she gave a shout as if in recognition at a 
picture of a watermelon, and when someone told her to "eat it" she 
fell in at once with the pretense. Within the next week I was told 
she made a noise of sucking at sight of a picture of a peach, though 
peaches had disappeared for two months or more. 

It appears a generalization of the idea of fruit taste that after 
becoming acquainted with peaches and loquats the baby looked 
with cries of desire (tenth month, 277th day) at apricots, which she 
had not tasted. By the end of the year she was not slow to recog- 
nize any new kind of fruit as fruit, after a period of interest and 
experiment in everything round and fruitlike. 

I have spoken above of the baby's liking for meat when first 
tasted, in the form of soup, and her later tiring of it (p. 163.) In the 
eleventh month she showed so persistent lack of appetite with a 
milk and grain diet that on the last day of the month, at our doc- 
tor's advice, a bit of rare broiled steak was given her to suck; and 
this was repeated occasionally in the twelfth month. She did not 
care especially for it, till she managed to bite off and swallow some 
of it; then she was delighted; and as it digested perfectly well, and 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 167 

her appetite for other food revived when a Httle meat was given with 
it every few days, it was continued, and the allowance was grad- 
ually increased during the second year, till in the third it was part 
of her regular food. During most of the second year her enjoy- 
ment of it was great, and it ranked with sweets as her greatest 
desire in food, after fruit; at times it was as much desired and en- 
joyed as fruit. In the fifteenth month she would cry out for it per- 
sistently as soon as the platter appeared. After the twentieth month 
her great preference for it declined on the whole, though with reviv- 
als, and it is well liked still. 

In the sixth month and in the eighth month salt put into the baby's 
mouth did not seem to be tasted at all; but in the ninth month she 
was very fond of pretzels, apparently for the sake of the salt, which 
she would lick and suck off; and in the second year she became 
exceedingly fond of clear salt, — throughout the fifteenth month 
she would beg and clamor for it, and was fonder of it than of 
candy. She likes her food pretty well salted still. 

Several foods containing oil have been liked from the first taste 
— chiefly butter from the beginning of the second year, olives from 
the twenty-second month, and nuts from the twenty-sixth month. 
Nuts especially were greatly desired, though the child was rarely 
allowed to have one till late in the third year. In the thirty-fifth 
month I gave her a bit of green almond. " I like it," she said. "I 
like it all the way down to my stomach." Chocolate always gave 
delight. Japanese ginger has been consistently liked from the first 
taste, at eighteen months old. In all her tastes that seem unusual, 
as the love for salt, olives, lemon, ginger, the distaste for milk, the 
child reproduces closely those of either father or mother, 

3. Interest. 

Taste at no time played as large a part among the child's inter- 
ests as I had expected. In the first eight months, which were filled 
with a multitude of the most lively and absorbing pleasures from 
the higher senses, from muscular activity, and from mental occupa- 
tion, food practically afforded no interest and gave no pleasure 
beyond the negative one of allaying the discomfort of hunger. 
Before the second month sight had excited livelier demonstrations 
than taste ever did before the eighth. Although in the first half 



1 58 University of California. [Vol.i. 

year the baby was often keenly hungry and demanded food impera- 
tively, as soon as the first edge of hunger was off she cared little to 
continue nursing, and wished to sit up, look about, and play; any 
sight or sound would divert her. From the eighth month demon- 
strations of pleasure in food appeared: e. g.,m the tenth month, 
304th day, when the mush came on the table she pointed with laugh- 
ter and clamor of eagerness; in the eleventh, 315th day, she greeted 
her mother and the a bowl of wheatina with laughter and motions 
of joy, and scrambled down from my lap to get to her. At other 
times in these latter months of the first year even the best liked 
food was treated with indifference, and she preferred playing about 
to eating. Nor did the greatest pleasure ever called out by taste 
in this six months equal the joy that was habitual over the dog, 
the kittens, going outdoors, etc. 

With the second year, interest and pleasure in food increased, and 
at times seemed to pass all others except that in going outdoors, 
and for days once or twice to rival even that; after the child was 
twenty-one months old, however, it was rare that she was willing 
to leave her outdoor play to get her meals. Such demonstrations 
of interest in food as laughing aloud when she saw it, or pointing 
to her high-chair and begging before breakfast was ready, were 
quite common in this year; in the nineteenth month once as the 
meat was removed she began to shout, "Ea' wi'! ea' wi'!" — now we 
shall eat rice; in the twentieth, seeing the baker's wagon on the 
road, she cried, "Brown bread! brown bread!" till she got it; so 
other incidents might be added. In the latter part of the thirty-sixth 
month, when she was much occupied in giving accounts of some 
imaginary parrots, the things they ate had a laVge place in her inter- 
est. In the last week of this month she saw a circus for the first 
time, and the next day the lemonade and popcorn she had there 
proved to be about as important in her recollections as the elephant. 

In some cases other interests, usually keen, were distinctly sub- 
ordinated by taste. Thus in the seventeenth month she was once 
given a piece of candy just before my return from the city, and as 
soon as I came in she was anxious to tell me about it, saying, "Ca'l 
ca'!" pointing to her mouth and showing the bit left in her fingers, 
quite oblivious of her usual lively interest in my return and the dis- 
posal of my wraps. Late in the twenty-first month, missing her 



shinn.] TJie Development of a Child. 169 

mother one day, she turned from all her favorite diversions to ask 
pitifully, "See mamma!" but finally the suggestion of a loquat won, 
and she went out quite happily to get it, — though this may have 
been in part because it involved going outdoors. In the first week 
of the twenty-second month I went to seethe child, who was camp- 
ing in the woods, and asked, "What do you suppose grandma sent 
you?" — ''Candy?" —"No, not candy." — "Beefsteak?" — "No." 
— "Su to ea'?" (something to eat) — as if nothing else could be of 
interest. In the latter part of the thirty-sixth month, asked, "What 
"would you like to do on your birthday?" she answered, "I would 
like to have some candy come." 

The subordination of taste by other interests was more common, 
however. The child's unwillingness in the fourteenth month to give 
up a visit upstairs for the sake of a piece of candy has been men- 
tioned (p. 164 ). Early in the sixteenth month she begged for a 
book while eating a cooky, and was told she must finish her cooky 
first, for her hands were dirty. She lifted her hand and inspected it, 
then held out the cooky and intimated that she wished it put away 
on the mantel while she went to get her hands washed, then came 
back and called again for the " boo'." So again in the latter part of 
the eighteenth month, I said to put her off when she was begging to 
go outdoors, " Why, you have your cooky to eat." — "'Way," she 
answered, offering the cooky, — put it away and let me go. In the 
twenty-first month, wishing to take her into the house, I suggested 
that she should go indoors and have a cracker. She answered, 
" That cracker go outdoors too ?" and by and by went to her mother 
and urged the suggestion over and over ; she evidently wanted the 
cracker, but not unless it might "go outdoors too." Later in the 
same month, when she had pinched her finger and was asked 
whether she would go outdoors or have her breakfast for consola- 
tion, she sobbed, "Outdoors," and as soon as she was fairly out 
stopped her crying and profuse kissing of her finger, and said with 
an air of relief, " Feel better now." The next day I could not coax 
her to desert the joy of climbing up and down the stairs for the 
sake of her dinner, and had to pick her up and bring her resisting 
to the table; but after dinner, when she had started up the stairs 
again and I had suggested that if she would come down her mother 
would let her run about with no clothes on, she instantly came back^ 
laughing and eager. So other instances might be given. 



170 



University of Calif oiniia. [Vol. i. 



Desire for taste sensations was at all times noticeably influenced 
by habit, and controllable. From the time she could be propped with 
cushions in a high-chair she sat at the family table, and she never 
gave trouble by demanding the things she saw others eating. In 
the second year she sometimes squealed and shouted for articles 
she had been allowed to have ; those she had never been permitted 
she saw eaten every day without thinking of wishing them. For 
things sometimes given her and sometimes withheld she at times 
asked persistently, but as a rule accepted refusal pleasantly. In the 
twentieth and twenty-first months, e. g., she would ask at all hour5 
for cherries, loquats or berries, but if refused would say, "Make 
Ruth sick," and think no more of it. She knew where they all 
grew, and would make visits to the trees, pick up fallen fruit, and 
ask, " Good ripe cherry ? " or "loquat; " and if told it was green or 
bad would throw it willingly away. She would punctiliously ask 
if she might pick a fruit, or eat it when in her hand: "Woo ha' li' 
pea'?" (Ruth have a little peach?) she would ask (twenty-second 
month); or, " Mamma, do you sink I had better have some lokats ?" 
(thirty-third month). In the thirty-fourth month I gave her some 
candy to put away in a receptacle, telling her she must not eat it ; 
she sat in my lap a half hour, happy and interested in examining 
the pieces and stowing them away without offering to eat one, only 
once or twice touching a novel kind to her tongue to test. It was 
now possible to leave candy in the room accessible to her, with a 
fair certainty that she would not touch it. 

There were marked exceptions to this ease in inhibition of taste 
desires, — rather freakish ones, it seemed to me, than due to any 
special fondness for certain articles; thus in the eighteenth month, 
her persistent wish to put dirt in her mouth when digging, could 
hardly have been due to love of the taste. In the twenty- fifth she 
once suddenly ran to her father's desk, climbed a chair, and before 
she could be reached seized a piece of peppermint, stuffed it into 
her mouth, and hastily swallowed it as I approached. In the latter 
part of the twenty-sixth month, seeing her mother handling some 
peaches, she urged over and over, "Have own self!" and when 
refused, she snatched the table cover and jerked it to bring the fruit 
within reach; when her hand was slapped for this she remarked 
mournfully, "Hurt dear little hand!" — then in a few seconds was 



Shinn] Tlie Development of a Child. lyi 

cheerfully interested in seeing the peaches put into a pail to take to 
her aunt, and started off for the buggy with them, calling, " Here 
go peach for Aunt May," without showing the least desire for them 
herself. In the twenty-fourth month she was for a few days deter- 
mined to snatch the prunes that were spread all about on drying 
frames; she would clutch a handful and double herself over them, 
so that they would have to be taken from her by force ; but she 
became in a few days very obedient to me about them and would 
play with piles of them without thinking of putting one into her 
mouth. In the next month she was still more persistent about 
seizing almonds ; but after the first, the disobedience was a matter 
of occasional sudden freak; thus in the twenty-fifth month she 
would amuse herself by cracking almonds for many minutes with- 
out offering to touch one, but now and then would suddenly dive 
under the table with a kernel and lie on her face to conceal it, or 
slip one into her mouth and cover her face with her hands. This 
behavior was due to someone's having irresponsibly given her prunes 
or nuts when she knew they were forbidden; and after, late in the 
third year, her mother "allowanced" her to one nut a day, she 
became absolutely faithful to the restriction, and could be trusted 
to go to a boxful at will, select her nut, and wish no more till 
next day. She would even refuse unauthorized offers, saying 
reprovingly, " I must not have that," or " I have had my nut to-day." 
From the beginning of the second year I noticed her invariable 
willingness to wait cheerfully for an expected dainty, — while, e. g., 
(thirteenth month), a bit of watermelon was tied in a cloth for her 
to suck, and she herself in a towel; or while others were waited on 
at table. A little of a dainty did not whet desire unless she had 
been led to expect more; at nineteen months she would finish a 
date or lozenge, then thrust her hands behind her with a quaint and 
expressive gesture and cry cheerfully, "Gogng!" (gone), and ask 
for no more. With the latter half of the third year I began to 
notice her invariable willingness to share her candy, bananas, etc.; 
she would offer, even urge, the last piece, look at the empty box 
and say cheerfully, "All gone," and turn to some other interest. 
Indeed, to see others eating a favorite food was often desired as a 
substitute for eating it herself; in the thirty-sixth month, ^. ^.,when 
prunes were denied her she would beg me to eat them then, and 
take great pleasure in bringing them to me. 



1^2 University of California. [Vol. i. 

Much of all this was temperament, and was shown in other 
inhibitions besides those of taste desires; in the matter of picking 
flowers, for example. Some of it, however, seems due to the effect 
of systematic restriction in keeping the interest in taste sensations 
from becoming absorbing. For a time about the seventeenth month, 
when those in charge had slipped into some laxity in letting the 
child have fruit, candy, etc., unsystematically, she grew exigent, 
thought a great deal more about eating, and seemed to experience 
more desire for these indulgences than before or since; she would 
tease for them all day, and one afternoon (when, to be sure, she was 
fretful from other causes) she se\'eral times threw herself on the 
floor and cried when candy was refused. I have little doubt that 
taste might easily have become, by more attention, a much more 
dominant sensation; or had the child not been well supplied with 
matter of interest to the other senses, had she been more confined 
to the house and become restless for occupation, she might have 
been thrown back more upon taste interest. 

Of any influence of suggestion on taste, I saw practically no 
indication. The nearest approach to it was that the same food 
rejected in her own seat would be a few minutes later eaten with 
relish, when she had been allowed to go and sit in her grandmoth- 
er's lap, — the regular indulgence at the close of a meal in the lat- 
ter part of the second year. The following might seem an instance: 

— In the thirtieth month she was in the habit of leaving her crusts 
uneaten, and I remarked on this in her hearing, saying that I won- 
dered why children disliked crusts, for the taste was agreeable. 
The child took up a rejected crust, ate it, and called my attention, 

— "Aunty, I did eat dat good c'ust." For at least a week after- 
ward I noticed that she daily went patiently through her crusts. I 
did not think, however, that suggestion had influence here; either 
she wished to please, or liked the crusts better on acquaintance; she 
has not rejected them consistently since. She would sometimes 
wish to try a taste because someone else thought it good; but I 
never knew a case in which the most skillful effort could affect her 
opinion of it after she had tried it. 

The one instance in which I knew her to take what might be 
called an experimental interest in taste was in the thirty-fifth month. 
I had noticed that she was often very unwilling to try new tastes, 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 173 

and thought it well to correct this a little. I found that a very- 
slight suggestion addressed not to her desire of taste but to her 
curiosity (as, "You may try how that tastes, if you like") was 
responded to, and she went about with me for a long time tasting 
various things in the garden, interested, and always willing to try. 
Of course I took precautions against her being led by the incident 
to any dangerous independent investigation of the sort, and she 
has never shown the least disposition to make such. The immense 
curiosity concerning things to be seen, heard, or felt does not seem 
to extend to the realm of taste. 

Words of taste, even the names of articles of food, did not 
appear especially early in her vocabulary. Milk, cracke7^,and water 
were among some forty-five words understood by her at eleven 
months, and a number more were learned in the twelfth month, but 
her curiosity about the names of the things she ate was out of all 
proportion less than about those of the things she saw and handled. 
In the fifteenth month she first named a food herself, and by the 
end of the sixteenth, fourteen names of food were used, out of a 
vocabulary of sixty-five words. There seemed little relation between 
their order of appearance and her preferences in taste. 

In the sixteenth month I heard the child saying, "Goo', goo','' 
and asked her, "What is good?" and she answered by pointing into 
her mouth. After this, good came into unmistakable use, and up to 
the eighteenth month referred exclusively to agreeable taste; after 
that it was occasionally used in other senses, as of a good (unbroken) 
pen, or of her own conduct. In the eighteenth month i^i??/;' appeared, 
meaning any disagreeable taste; this was used for several months, 
but lost before the end of the second year, "I don't like it" becom- 
ing the usual expression of distaste. Her calling medicine liot I 
have mentioned (p. 162). Nasty was once used of a bad taste, 
(thirty-sixth month) but never really taken up. 

Of adjectives, two of sight, dark and dirty, and one of dermal 
sensation, wet, preceded the first adjective of taste, good. 

Eat appeared in the sixteenth month, but as late as the twenty- 
second I doubted if it was distinguished from biting, or merely put- 
ting in the mouth; she once even used the word of kissing (p. 139). 
Lunch, used in the nineteenth month, meant any meal, perhaps table 
food in general. Taste (the neuter verb, " taste good") appeared 
in the twenty-first month. 



SMELL. 
I. Sensibility. 

In the first ten months I saw no indication of the existence of a 
sense of smell, but no very strong odors were tried. In the tenth 
month the baby's grandmother tried a good deal to teach her to 
smell at flowers, and a camphor bottle also had repeatedly been held 
to her nose; at just ten months she for the first time sniffed when a 
flower or bottle was offered, and I thought by her manner that she 
perceived some sensation.^ She lost the trick of sniffing in a few 
days, however, and when I tried to reteach it, on the 318th day, she 
confused it with kissing, and sniffed at the picture she had been 
taught to kiss. In the next few days she recovered from this con- 
fusion, but had no idea of the purpose of the act, and when told to 
"smell" she would sniff without any object to smell; or she would 
sometimes do it vigorously for fun. The 330th day I was told that 
she associated the act with the Catalonian jasmine, which had often- 
est been used in teaching her, and would sniff when she passed it; 
but when I tried to get her really to smell it she would turn away 
her head, or put the offered flower into her mouth. 

Camphor, however, she seemed to me in this month to like 
to inhale. The 321st day I put some on her upper lip, where 
she must inhale it, and she looked at me with a puzzled expression 
for a few seconds. In the thirteenth month I thought she liked to 
have camphor about her. 

In the fourteenth month she began to sniff at roses, — perhaps 
by mere association of the act with flowers: the402d day she bent 
to smell a picture of a rose, and in the last week of the month 
would point and sniff when she wished to be lifted up to smell pic- 
tures of roses and of nasturtiums on the wall. Twice in this month 
404th and 417th days, she laughed aloud when held down to smell 
flowers in the dark, and I thought it might be at the recognition of 
their odor; but for the next three months I saw no indication but 



1 Mrs. Beatty never saw her boy sniff at a flower till the eleventh month; 
but she was told of his doing it in the ninth. 



(174: 



shinn.] The Development of a CJdld. 175 

this of anything more than a mere association of the act of sniffing 
with flowers. A similar association with bottles was sometimes 
shown. Once on the 412th day she smelled of my watchguard 
again and again, a meaningless act so far as I could see. 

On the 462d day I was told that she showed pleasure at the smell 
of whale-oil soap, and wished to smell it again. 

In the third week of the eighteenth month I gave her an orange 
blossom to smell, — the first time she had seen the flower. She 
called it lilac at once ; she could have had no reason for doing so 
except the perception that both were fragrant. She knew a number 
of flower names at this time, and usually experienced no confusion 
between them. She seemed really interested in the flower, and 
desired one every time we went near the trees, and would carry it 
about in her hand for many minutes; yet she would not voluntarily 
smell it. In a day or two she called a verbena a lilac; in this case 
there was no decided perfume to account for the confusion, but there 
is a slight resemblance in appearance ; and I saw her smell the 
flower, as if to see if it really were lilac. 

In the last week of the month occurred unmistakable evidence 
at last of a sense of smell, and power of discrimination by it, and 
memory connected with it. The mother told me that the child, 
kissing her soon after she had eaten a wintergreen lozenge, had 
cried, "Candy!" I then put some camphor on my handkerchief 
(out of the child's sight, of course) and offered it to her to smell. 
She cried, "Camphor!" then, "More!" and ran to the door of the 
closet where the bottle was kept, begging, "Camphor! camphor!" 
In the first week of the nineteenth month she recognized lilac when 
thrust into the bush after dark to smell, but it was moonlight, and 
she might have recognized the location. In the same week I gave 
her a sniff at an orange blossom that I held in my closed hand, and 
she said it was "lilac." 

Though she undoubtedly could now recognize a smell, she still 
treated smelling as a mere ceremony associated with flowers. She 
had been told she might smell flowers that she was not allowed to 
pick, and in the latter part of the twentieth month it became a reg- 
ular routine to go and smell one when she was forbidden to pick it. 
"Ruth pick?" she would say. — "No." — "Look?" — "Yes, Ruth 
may look." — "Smell?" and she would bend over and sniff She 



1^76 University of California. [Vol. i. 

carried it so far that when on the 592d day she saw some files of 
magazines she was not allowed to handle, she began, "Ruth? mag- 
azine?" — " No, Ruth must not play with the magazines." — "Look?" 

"Yes, Ruth may look." — "Smell?" and she bent over and sniffed 

punctiliously and loudly at one after another. So a few days later, 
in a parlor where she was forbidden to touch the books, she would 
explain, "Look," and "Smell," and act accordingly. She kept up 
this smelling at forbidden flowers — nearly all odorless, as it chanced 
— for a month or more, while she never offered to smell the sweet- 
peas she was daily playing with. She showed no sign of preferring 
fragrant flowers. 

Her father, who does not smoke himself, would sometimes come 
home redolent from sitting an hour in the smoking car; but the 
child never seemed to notice any difference when he took her in his 
arms. In the twenty-third month she would sometimes say, "That 
don't smell good," or "don't smell nice," but I did not know how 
far it was a mere echo of comments she had heard others make. 
Even as late as the twenty-seventh month, when she would say 
such things, — e. g., " I don't like smoke, — that smells bad," — 
I thought it was because she had heard someone else say so; but 
her mother said she had heard such an expression when it was 
plainly an original opinion. In the thirty-third month, her mother 
told me, she brought a piece of fennel indoors, then smelling it 
observed, "This does n't smell nice in this country; it smells better 
outdoors." (I had told her a cousin was in Germany, but most of 
her friends were "in this country.") 

2. Interest. 

I judge that interest in smell was so slight that the sense seemed 
later in development and less keen than it really was. Once only, in 
the last week of the twenty-seventh month, under suggestion from 
me, the child became very much interested in going about and finding 
how the different leaves in the garden smelled, — camphor, lemon 
verbena, orange, sage, etc. Once, too, in the twenty-ninth months 
she stopped to smell a flower^ then called to me, "Come smell this 
daffodil," — a flower, however, of but the slightest odor. 

Asked in the twentieth month, "What does Ruth do with her 
nose?" she answered by wrinkling it up gayly into a grimace then 
frequent with her, and did not think of its use in smelling till helped 
by hints about the flowers. 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 177 

The word smell, as noted above, appeared in the twentieth month, 
but only to mean the act of sniffing. In the twenty-third it was 
used in the neuter sense, "to smell good," but it is unhkely that it 
was used intelligently before the twenty-seventh; so too of the 
adjectives good and nice used with it. Smell bad occurred in the 
twenty-third month. In the twenty-first month she had said szveet 
after smelling, or when asked, " How does it smell?" but I did not 
think the word had any meaning to her. 



The most important generalization that appears to me on com- 
pleting this analysis of my notes on the development of the senseS) 
is one contrary to accepted opinion and to my own expectation in 
beginning the observations, but in accord with my general impres- 
sion as they proceeded — viz., that the higher senses led from the 
first in the child's psychological activity. So far from finding an 
early dominance of taste and smell, displaced later by that of the 
senses that supply more mental interest, I found a lively attention 
to sight impressions very early, slowly overtaken by attention to 
other sensations in direct rather than in inverse order of their in- 
tellectual importance. 

Putting out of account the organic craving of hunger, I did 
not see evidence, least of all in the earliest months, that taste, and 
smell, and dermal pain, excited keener interest, as compared with 
sight or hearing, than they do in adults, — possibly not so keen. 
I did not see that they occupied a larger proportion of the total 
attention given to pure or almost pure sensation than in the average 
adult, — possibly not so large 



J ^3 University of California. [Vol. i. 

Note to Page 128. 

Though I have not thought it best to include in the text any incidents from 
the fourth year, I append here a few farther notes on the rude improvising of 
chants, since it was a continuous episode, beginning in the last days of the 
third year and running on for weeks into the fourth. 

During these weeks — the whole of the thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth 
months — the child continued now and then to fit her chanting to half metrical 
lines, usually made in the same form as those on p. 127, "All about the — ," 
etc. They were wholly illogical, but perhaps not absolutely meaningless to the 
child, in the way of broken suggestion and images. One that I caught in the 
Ihirly-eighth month, sung as the child danced about, was: — 

" The gentle town, the gentle town, the gentle town. 
Will do no hann to us." 

The only time that the lines were deliberately made was late in the thirty- 
seventh month, when the child told me, among other stories about some imag- 
inary chipmunks, that she bought them a book "in my city," and the book had 
pictures and poems in it. Then she chanted loudly: — 

"All about way up in de 'ky, 
De little badesf'y. 

"De g^eenie has a whitish book. 
" Dat's a poem." 

The first fragment was from a kindergarten song: — 

"IVay up in the sky. 
The little birds fly." 

The "greenie" in the second was from an advertising adaptation of Cox's 
brownies. Other fragments followed, so pointless that I could not impress them 
on my memory. Getting a pencil and paper, I asked her to tell me some of 
the poems again; and she readily chanted the following: — 

"Kitty has a lit-tell poem. 

"Kitty has a lit-tell jum- tick \druni-stick'\; 
Kitty kinibs \climbs'\ on de jum- tick andp'ays 071 hay pi-y anno. 

"In de jum- tick way to p^ay on hay pi-y anno." 

"Dose are j'or/ poems," she said in a tone of ciiticism. — *'Very short," I 
said. "Can't you tell me a longer one ? " But she was now interested in tell- 
ing me about kitty's piano, and recited no more poems. 

After the thirty-eighth month, though the child now and then threw into a 
chant what she was saying, I heard no more of the "poems." Thus in the 
forty-fourth month, as she ran past my window, I heard her call in a singing 
tone to some birds that flew out of a tree near by: — 

"-Fly, fly, fly, birds! 
I 'II get a ladder, and get way up there and catch yoii. 
If you don't fly, fly, fly!" 

This is evidently quite different in spirit from the earlier attempts; it i-^ 
merely an adaptation to chanting of what the child meant to say in any case; 
not a "poem," or "song," in which meming was entirely subordinate. 

MiLicENT Washburn Shinn. 



Numbers III and IV of the Notes on the Development of a Child are published 
through the kind liberality of Mrs. PHEBE A. HEARST. 





7th month. — The photograph sliows that traces of the early 
grasping with both hands, the fingers vaguely spread until the 
ibject was touched, were still to be seen. See pages 313, 31. s, 
119. 323- 



7th month, — One of the earliest stages in the developme 
of creeping, the mere habit of various positions propped 
on the hands and knees, is well shown here. See pages 3 

407, 414. 








gth month. — Standing with the slight support of the door 
orner. See page 345. 



One year old. — The ease and freedom of this position 
standing (a spontaneous one, frequently taken at the tini 
will give some idea of the development in security of balanc 
I have no satisfactory photograph of the .standing positii 
entirely unsupported, which was completely acquired by tl 
date. 



SENSATIONS OF MUSCULAR ACTIVITY, MOTION, 
AND POSITION. 

The sensations here grouped, (quite various in their physio- 
logical origin, but too closely interwoven in the development of the 
child to be separated in the record,) are among the most important 
of the first and second year. This is evident, not only from the 
remarkable extent to which the pleasures of this period are made 
up of motion, active and passive, but also from the numerous and 
complex muscular adjustments that are acquired, impossible with- 
out the guidance of sensation. Directing the eyes, seizing and 
handling objects, walking, talking, are examples. But the greater 
part of the account of these sensations is inseparably involved in 
that of the movements, and cannot well be given here. The notes 
that follow, therefore, are but the incomplete record of this group 
of sensations that can be detached from my later notes on move- 
ment, and give but an inadequate impression of their importance. 

I. Muscular Sensation. 

We have no positive evidence of the presence of muscular sen- 
sation until the appearance of voluntary movements requiring its 
guidance; still, it is reasonable to suppose that it accompanies 
movement from the first; and the earliest, unregulated movements 
may be of considerable service in developing it and differentiating 
it in the consciousness, till it is able to take its part in directing 
voluntary movement. Thus sneezing and crying from the first 
hour, and afterwards sucking, starting, winking, smiling, hiccough- 
ing, yawning, stretching, panting, and varied vocal exercises, gave 
quite a wide experience of muscular sensation during the first two 
months. Still more efficient in this direction must have been the 
aimless movements called by Preyer "impulsive," since these were 
remarkably profuse and continuous during the first weeks. From 
the first hour the arms moved quite freely, say three or four inches: 
and on the 4th day the nurse, trying to trace the baby's hand on 
paper, found that even in sleep she would not let it be held stilL 
and kept the fingers sprawled. On the 5th day I noticed that when 

i;3 (179) 



1 80 University of California. [Vol. i. 

she was awake and comfortable, her head was much of the time 
moving vaguely from side to side; so constantly, indeed, were the 
head and eyes moved during the first month, that so late as the 
29th day, I could not, in repeated trials, tell whether the eyes really 
followed a moving object for a few inches, or only moved with it 
by chance. Violent grimacing was also frequent (this, however, 
not entirely without peripheral stimulus, as it seemed connected 
with faint sensations of discomfort); and arm and leg movements 
were practically continuous when the baby was wide awake and 
comfortable. 

These irregular movements disappeared^ with the appearance of 
more voluntary and co-ordinated ones, as if inhibited by them 
Even staring, in the third week, tended to inhibit the grimacing 
and the aimless movements of eyes and head; and. with the acquire- 
ment of fixation (4th — 8th weeks: see Sight, pp. 14, 15), and of 
ability to stiffen the neck, turn the head at will, and balance it 
(3d — loth weeks) they disappeared; I have no note of them after 
the first month. The first co-ordinated leg-movements I saw the 
baby use, — propping herself with her knees when laid on her face, 
— were on the 32d day; and during the next week, when held out 
in one's lap along the knees, she began to push strongly with her 
feet against the body of the person who held her, and when in the 
bath, against the foot of the tub : simultaneously, the aimless leg- 
movements disappeared, and are noted but once afterward. Arm- 
movements of the primitive type continued longer, through the sec- 
ond month, increasing in freedom ("waving," and "brandishing" arms 
are the words I find in my notes): but within a week after the first 
appearance of any voluntary arm-movement (a little tugging on her 
mother's hands when her arms were held up in wiping her after the 
bath), they had ceased to be continuous: she would lie perfectly 
quiet half an hour at a time, looking about her. Vigorous move- 
ments of arms and legs were common enough after this: but they 
were of a different type, either expressions of joy and excitement or, 
in my judgment, voluntarily made for pleasure in the muscular 
activity. 

^A few isolated instances of movements that might be classed with this 
type occurred later, and are noted under other heads. 



Shinn.] The Developme7it of a Child. 1 8 1 

Such motor adjustments as showed the directing power of 
sensation were thus present in the eye-muscles by the 25th day 
and in quite complete degree by the eighth week; in the neck 
muscles by the third week, and in quite complete degree by the 
tenth. There must have been an advanced degree of voluntary 
control in the tongue and lips by the seventh week, as the baby at 
this time experimented deliberately with them (see Feeling, p. 1 36)- 
and these and the rest of the vocal organs had come under control 
sufficiently for experimenting with sounds by the fourth month. 
In the leg muscles, whether the guidance of sensation was neces- 
sary or not for such simple acts (possibly reflex) as propping with 
the knees, or pushing against a resisting surface, which began with 
the second month, it certainly seemed present in the skilful kicking 
that appeared in the latter part of the third month. The trunk 
muscles must have co-operated in the propping and pushing move- 
ments of the legs ; and though these very simple contractions may 
not have needed the guidance of sensation, it must have been 
involved in the repeated efforts to straighten up the body in the 
first week of the third month (see Movement). In the arms, its 
guidance first appeared on the 47th day, and was habitual (in efforts 
to carry the hand to the mouth) by the first week of the third 
month. In neither legs, arms, nor trunk, did skill of movement 
reach any advanced stage within the first year. In the fingers, it 
was still later : the first attempts at grasping extended through the 
fifth month, while small objects, as a single hair, were not handled 
till the latter part of the eighth month; and even in the second and 
third years finger skill was very limited.^ 

^ The order here is: Eye, neck, tongue and Hps, trunk and arms, legs, vocal 
organs in general, fingers. It is evident, however, that the use of arms and 
fingers must needs wait on that of eyes, since grasping is quite a complex 
act, in which sight, touch, and muscle sense must co-operate; that legs and 
trunk must come into co-operation before any but the simplest action is 
possible for either; while the vocal organs have co-operations with each 
other to acquire before much advance in their use is possible. It would be 
hasty to say that after these preliminary co-operations are once acquired, 
the order of progress in muscular control might not differ considerably 
from the order in which it was first established. As a matter of fact, how- 
ever, I am quite convinced, from later observations, that the eye does 
keep its lead, while the vocal organs come rapidly to the front at the time of 



1 82 University of Calif o?'nia. [Vol. i. 

The most abundant evidence of the existence and importance 
of the muscular sensations, (except that afforded by the growth of 
skill in action), was the remarkable pleasure experienced in the 
exercise of the muscles, and the dislike of all muscular restraint. 

The striking satisfaction experienced in liberation from clothes, 
I put down as due to relief from this restraint; though there proba- 
bly was also a considerable feeling of rest in the cessation of con- 
tinuous touch sensations on the skin ; and there may have been an 
increased freedom of circulation, though the baby's garments were 
carefully planned to avoid all constriction. From the first month 
(my note fails to show just how early) the expression of satisfaction 
in the baby's face when she was being undressed for the bath, or 
laid naked on her mother's knees, was noticeable. In the tenth 
week I note that undressing and the bath give as much satisfaction 
as food; and in the fifteenth week that undressing (with the bath 
or rubbing that followed) is next to seeing faces and being played 
with among her chief joys, — calling out not the vivacious expres- 
sions that the social pleasures did, but an indescribable look of 
felicity, with opened mouth and eager gaze at her mother's face, 
and only occasional vigorous kicking. By the sixth month it made 
her very gay, and I find many notes such as ''when undressed, 
went into a shower of gurgles," or "laughed abundantly." In some 
cases, being undressed and rubbed changed her mood, leaving her 
happy and sunny, after she had been fretful all the afternoon. 

During the period in the third and fourth months when she was 
persistently eager to sit up, fretting inconsolably when laid down 
under ordinary conditions, she was still content and often hilarious 
if laid down naked, or even with legs free. In the fourth and fifth 
months, she was often laid in the sun (her head shaded) with her 

acquiring speech, passing the trunk and limbs in development; and that the 
fingers remain in the rear for years. I will just suggest here the pedagogic 
significance of this observation, — its bearing, for instance, on the question 
whether reading should precede hand training, so far as the question is one 
of muscular conditions, — hoping to recur to it later, with fuller material for 
its consideration. As to the bearing on the formula that the development of 
muscular control proceeds from essential to subsidiary muscles, or, as some- 
times quoted, from central to peripheral muscles, it is to be said that discussions 
of this formula h ave not attempted to take into account the head , neck , and face 
muscles. 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 183 

legs thus free, and would lie in high spirits, kicking, crowing, gur- 
gling, smiling, and chewing the rubber of her rattle, for twenty- 
minutes at a time: a few instances of similar jubilant behavior when 
she was laid down without the legs free, are noted, but it was un- 
usual. In the ninth month she was several times allowed to creep 
about on very hot days in diaper and shirt, and it gave her singular 
delight; still more when she was allowed to creep naked. In the 
second year during the winter months (fifteenth to seventeenth) she 
was undressed on the hearth-rug, and several times allowed to 
caper about it unclad: it gave her great delight, but she soon tried 
to escape and scamper about the room. This she was allowed to 
do on several very warm days of the following summer (eighteenth 
to twenty-first months) after she was undressed, or in her night- 
gown, — which came to much the same thing, as she held it up high 
enough to free her legs completely. Her joy in this emancipation 
was remarkable, — running back and forth, squealing, shouting, 
gurgling, flinging herself down and jumping up, in an ecstacy of 
freedom. Once in the eighteenth month it was impossible to get 
her to leave the interesting occupation of climbing up and down 
stairs for the sake of dinner, and she had to be carried to the table 
forcibly; yet when after dinner she had returned with zeal to the 
climbing, she instantly deserted it, laughing and eager, at the sug- 
gestion that if she would come and be undressed she might run 
around in her nightgown. Next afternoon she began to ask 
for the same indulgence, and cried pitifully with disappointment 
(a most unusual thing with her) when it was not considered warm 
enough; and she did not give it up as usual, but renewed the 
request in the evening. Although she was as a rule intensely un- 
willing to come in from outdoors, she came in cheerfully once, in 
the latter part of the twenty-second month, on the promise that she 
might run round in her nightgown. 

With the third year, the release from clothes ceased to cause 
such an abandon of joy; twice in the twenty-fifth month I note 
that she asked prettily when undressed, "May Ruth run round little 
bit?" and scampered about, trying to work herself up to the expected 
hilarity, and laughing not altogether spontaneously: still, she 
enjoyed it much, and nearly cried when she had to stop. After 
this she either ceased to seek the privilege, or the colder weather 



184 University of California. [Vol. i. 

Drought it to an end; I have no farther note of it. She continued 
more or less disposed to "rampage" in her bath, however, or on 
her mother's bed when undressed, instead of getting into her own 
crib, — a common enough observation with Httle children, — as if 
the release from clothes acted as a stimulant to activity.^ 

■ The converse feeling of dislike to being dressed, appears a little 
later in my notes. By the middle of the second month complaints 
under the process are noted. By the fourth month this was the 
main source of displeasure in the child's existence; she almost 
always whimpered over it, and if she was tired or hungry it caused 
wails and tears. Sleeves were a special grievance, and in the thirty- 
seventh week if I was near by when her mother came to this part 
of the process, the baby would reach her arms to me in appeal for 
rescue. Up to the time that she had -learned the connection of 
cloak and cap with going outdoors (late in the seventh month) she 
complained when they were put on. In her baby-carriage she was 
usually unwilling to keep her hands under cover. By the last week 
of the eleventh month her dislike of dressing had declined, and as 
a rule she would lie unconcernedly across one's knee and let herself 
be dressed; after the twelfth month, I find no note at all of whim- 
pering over it. By the twenty-second month, however, she be- 
came very averse to keeping her cap on outdoors, wished her 
head free, and pulled the cap off constantly ; her coat too she dis- 
liked and would twitch at, saying, "Ruth don't need have coat!'' 
(She is to the present writing — at seven years old — very much 
disposed to get hat and coat off outdoors, though she has no dislike 
whatever to clothes in general.) In the twenty-sixth month, when 
she was sleeping in my charge for a time, I used to muffle her up 
in a comforter in the morning while I went to prepare her bath, as 
it was impossible to keep her l3^ing in bed: she detested this, and 

1 The mere novelty of playing without clothes no doubt helped to stimulate 
excitement (as the loss in excitement in the tv/enty-fifth month goes to show): 
but scarcely in the first year ; nor even in the second and third was it enough 
to account for all the exhilaration shown. Even adults are aware sometimes 
of a quite remarkable sense of relief and heightening of energy in disrobing or 
putting on freer and lighter clothes. That there is real muscular restraint in 
clothes is evident from the necessity athletes find of stripping as much as possi- 
ble before exercise. 



shinn.] The Developme7it of a Child. ' 1 85 

it took some firmness to prevent her throwing off the wrappings, 
however cold it might be; on one occasion I came back and found 
her sitting obediently, still swathed to the chin, but in tears. 

One of the earliest signs of anger I ever detected in the baby, — 
a tone of temper in crying, — was on occasion of an extra dressing 
one day, at eleven months old; and thereafter whenever she cried 
over being dressed there was the same slight tone of temper. There 
quickly appeared now a resentment against muscular restraint of 
any sort: to be held still in order to have her clothes arranged, to 
be kept fastened in her high chair or nursery chair when she wished 
to get away, caused angry crying and efforts to escape, — almost 
the only signs of temper she ever showed at this period. In the 
thirteenth month, if she was taken or held against her wish, she 
would either stiffen and wriggle away, or lift her arms and become 
limp, so that she slipped through one's grasp. I note squealing, 
stiffening, and wriggling, in protest against being taken or held, as 
late as the nineteenth month, and it is my impression that it lasted 
considerably longer ; in the eighteenth month, she would twist her- 
self away from an annoying hold. She never cared much to be 
held in arms ; rarely would consent to sit long in any one's lap ; and 
after getting the use of her own legs, almost never asked to be 
taken or carried. After she was a year and a half old I find con- 
stant notes of her reluctance to be carried, held, or even led. In 
the twentieth month she would cry, "Ruth walk!" or "Own self!" 
if lifted in arms, and pull away her hand, crying, "No !" if one tried 
to lead her; she pushed away my hand when I held her dress as 
she climbed a risky place (or, the next month, as she swung in the 
hammock). In the twenty-first month, as at a year old, though 
she never showed real passion, restraint could make her cross for 
a few minutes, and restraint only : she would squirm and scold to 
get away, to be allowed to get down from her chair, to go out of a 
room. "Let Ruth go !", ''Let Ruth down !", "Don't ! " she would 
scold. "Staking out," that she might play about safely without 
much watching, an admirable device with some babies, proved 
impracticable with her: except in one instance, when she was so 
occupied that she perhaps did not discover she was tied, she would 
immediately find the end of her tether and be driven to despair. 
In the twenty-seventh month she was very fond of "playing catch," 



J 35 U^iiversity of California. [Vol. i. 

and would coax her uncle into it, making sallies and calling him stren- 
uously: she did not mind being caught occasionally, but objected 
greatly to being held, and if he did not release her at once would 
first cry, ''Let me go ! " then appeal, "Aunty, come help me ! Uncle 
Joe did catch me ! " with a most aggrieved air. In the twenty-eighth 
month, when her grandmother once held her tight to prevent her 
running into some danger, she became much displeased, told her to 
"go away," and refused to kiss her for many minutes, which was 
unusual resentment for her sunny temperament. 

After this, she became more willing to be carried, or to sit on 
our laps, but I still find notes of appeals to be put down, and as 
late as the thirty-fifth month, she reported to me that she had 
"s'apped damma," angry at being taken from the bath and held still 
to check her capering till she could be wiped. 

Even the mere suggestion of restraint, a caress or touch, some- 
times annoyed her keenly in the second year. In the eighteenth 
month, her mother's hands laid on the back of her chair annoyed 
her; she put up her own hand, and pushed first one and then the 
other away, saying, '"Way!" and in the twentieth, pushed mine off 
with the uncivil remark, "Ta' bi' ha' 'way" — Take big hands away. 
So again in the twenty-third month. In the twentieth month she 
seemed annoyed at caresses, did not want a face or hand too near her, 
and would push it away saying, "Take head away!" "Take hand 
away ! " The day she was twenty months old her father came in as she 
was undressed,and took her foot in his hand. "Papa,don't touch Ruth 
foot!" she cried: "don't touch Ruth foot! don't touch baby foot!" 
"Don't kiss hand!" "Don't eat [kiss] Ruth neck!" "Don't kiss 
Ruth, — hurts! " are noted on one day in the twenty-first month; a few 
days later I kissed her hand when she was already squirming to get 
away from her father's hold, and she fairly snarled, "Don't/ '' snatch- 
ing her hand away. In the twenty-second month, she tumbled about 
happily half an hour on my bed, listening to Mother Goose rhymes 
and wishing me to lie near her, but utterly refused to let me put an 
arm about her or touch her, saying crossly, "Don't I " — "Don't 
what?" — "Put arm on Ruth back," — i. e., around her. She would 
sometimes give caresses herself, but wished to be left free to retreat 
on the instant: so in the twenty-fourth month, lying beside me, she 
would roll up and kiss me gayly, then away again. It was some- 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 1 87 

thing like a half-tamed kitten that will offer caresses, but springs 
away with fear of being caught if you lay your hand on it: but in 
the child's case there was no sign oi fear^ only repugnance. With 
the close of the second year this feeling about caresses ceased to be 
noticeable. In the last week of the year, having coaxed me to lie 
down on the floor by her, she wished me close to her, and stowed 
herself in my arms, across my breast or head, face against mine, 
repeatedly kissing; and at intervals during the third year, when 
sleeping beside me, she liked to creep over into my bed and go to 
sleep in my arms ; "Lie c'cse to me, au'tee," she would say. She 
was, however, considerably less clinging by daylight than in the 
dark. 

Late in the twenty-eighth month she made great resistance to 
having a poultice put on her finger, running away and crying, ''No, 
mamma, nof After some reasoning, she submitted to the sub- 
stitute of a glove-finger and salve, and kept it on all day. Such 
whims were not frequent with her ; and the only interpretation I 
could make of her vague but strong dread, was that it was con- 
nected with her repugnance to being in any way bound. 

From about the middle of the seventeenth month, "Caught! 
caught ! " was her cry, to express the distressing feeling of being 
impeded, or held, as when wedged in a narrow space between wall 
and chair, or when her dress caught and held her back. Fastened 
in her high chair (the first day of the eighteenth month) she strug- 
gled to get out, crying, "Cau' ! cau' ! " She would cry, "Cau' ! " if held 
in our arms when she wished to go free; if two chairs were too 
near together to allow her to pass between them easily, she would 
complain, "Cau' !", as soon as she found she would have to squeeze 
to get through ; or if any twig or vine tangled about her feet, the 
same cry came, — sometimes when the impediment was absurdly 
small, a mere suggestion of hindrance, as when a forked seed-vessel 
of Martynia hooked itself about her leg. In the nineteenth month 
she cried when side-garters were first put on, pulling at them and 
saying, "Cau' ! cau'!" and "Off!" when she felt the slight tension, as 
she moved. Once in the twenty-first month she climbed up on 
the lower rail of a fence, and after trying in vain to get up to the 
next one, complained, "Ruth caught, — little foot caught!" though 
nothing but gravitation impeded the little foot. 



1 88 University of California. [Vol. i. 

The first sign of imaginative sympathy she showed was for this 
grievance of restraint, when she tried to hft away the branch from 
a picture of a lamb caught in briers (twenty-fifth month, see Sigh*t, 
p. 104). In the twenty-seventh month she nearly cried over a pic- 
ture of an opossum holding a bird in his mouth, — not because the 
bird might be hurt or killed, but because it was held: "Mamma, 
that little bird can't get awayT she said pitifully. In the twenty- 
eighth month she saw a photograph of the well-known Faun and 
Child, and asked in a troubled tone if the child could not get down ; 
and again, coming to some pictures of papooses in their cases, "Can't 
the baby get out ?" Of a child in a bed whose covers were fastened 
down, "That baby caught ! He can't get out! That baby tied!" 
Up to this date, her pity had never (with a single exception) been 
excited by picture or story for any grievance save this one of phys- 
ical restraint. 

There was no doubt more in this curiously strong dread of be- 
ino- caught, held, impeded, than mere discomfort in the restraint of 
muscular activity. Some of it might be attributed to a more gen- 
eral desire of freedom, though this particular child did not other- 
wise show much passion for the free exercise of her will, yielding it 
rather easily as a rule. There was often something curiously un- 
reasoning and instinctive in manner in the repugnance she showed 
to physical restraint, which suggested remote inheritance, savage 
or even pre-human. In other manifestations, as the dislike to 
hands on her chair, or the exclamation, "That Riith{oo\.V' there 
seemed a glimpse of a sensitive defense of personality (something 
quite different from mere assertion of will) that was strangely ma- 
ture, and in advance of her general stage of development. 

Enjoyment of active muscular exercise for its own sake did not 
appear very early. I saw no instance of it till late in the third 
month,^ when the baby, lying naked in her mother's lap, would 
kick out her legs with a new motion, quite unlike the former vague 
motions, straight and strong, with as much precision as if she were 

^ But see under Movements (below) one or two instances of a curious jerk- 
ing and turning of the head in the last week of the second month; and also note 
the pushing with the feet in the second and third months. 



shinn.] ^ The Development of a Child. 1 89 

performing a gymnastic exercise, and with every appearance ot enjoy- 
ment. This hilarious kicking was very common thereafter for sev- 
eral months, till creeping was acquired, in the ninth month. It was 
always quite different from the demonstrations with legs and arms 
that expressed joy and excitement: I was satisfied that it was done 
purely for the pleasure of the sensation. In the third month also, 
86th day, I noticed that when holding her rattle and flourishing her 
arms she no longer flourished the other arm, and I thought the 
movement was now deliberate, for pleasure in brandishing the rattle. 

In the fourth month began the making of various sounds for 
amusement, in which the pleasure must have been as much in the 
muscular sensation as the noises ; this continued through the next 
month, and was recurred to at intervals during the whole period 
under consideration. In the fourteenth week, it amused the baby 
much to sneeze, and she always ended with a bright smile. 
"Playing" with objects began in the fourth month, also, — at 
first merely fumbling with rattles and other easily handled things, 
moving them about and putting them to the mouth : then more 
complex hand occupations (such as tearing paper to bits in 
the sixth month, thumping the piano in the eighth, rocking the 
sewing machine pedal or pulling things out of a basket in the ninth ; 
rocking chairs, raising and shutting lids, pulling doors to and fro, 
digging in the dirt, waving good-by, shaking hands, in the last 
quarter of the year; and a multitude of more and more complicated 
acts in the second and third yearsj. In all these there was a certain 
element of muscular pleasure, though obscure. 

From the first day of the fifth month I note splashing in the 
bath, also a complex pleasure, with an element of muscular sensa- 
tion. In the same month, I began to see instances of especial pleas- 
ure in exercising muscle against resistance.^ The baby used to take 
firmly between her jaws a stout rubber strip attached to her rattle, 
and twitch it out with a jerk, getting of course a double sensation, 

^ There may have been some such liking in the pushing with her feet hori- 
zontally in the second month (p. 180), and in the downward pushing, "feeling 
her feet," that preceded walking movements; but it is more likely that these 
were involuntary responses to pressure on the soles, connected with the unde- 
veloped instinct to stand and walk. Mrs. Beatty's boy (see p. 135, above), on 
the i6th da}^, pushed so strongly against the foot of his basket that he nearly 
pushed himself out of it. 



1 90 University of California. « [Vol. i. 

in arms and in jaws. Perhaps a similar muscular pleasure was 
originally the motive of a persistent habit, dating from the first week 
of this month, — that of tugging at her father's and grandfather's 
whiskers, which they somewhat fatuously encouraged. At the end 
of the sixth month, grasping being now fully established, she 
became most eager to pull, with laughter and exultant clamor, at the 
nose, ear, and especially the hair, of any one that held her. In the 
seventh and eighth months, she not only assailed her mother and 
me thus, but had romps of the sort with several young girls of the 
neighborhood, who liked to get down on the hearth rug beside her 
and surrender their bangs to the rollicking little thing. We had 
soon to check the habit, but in the latter part of the tenth month, 
and through the eleventh, I note seizing and pulling hair as a trait 
of rough frolics. From the seventh month on, there was from time 
to time shown a curiously intense desire to get hold of and tug at 
the hair of the dog, the cat's fur, even the fur of a rug; pulling the 
dog's ears and tail was inveterate at times. How far all this was a 
case of a general liking to use muscular effort against a resistance, 
I could form no judgment. From the time grasping was acquired, 
there often seemed a special satisfaction in pulling at a fastened 
object, more than in obtaining possession of a free one. In the 
twelfth month the baby was given a bit of tough steak to suck, but 
found more pleasure in tearing it with her jaws, much as she had 
pulled at the strip of rubber in the fifth month. 

With the latter half of the first year came a period of peculiar 
pleasure in the movements of her body, connected with the acquisi- 
tion of the main race-movements, — rolling, creeping, standing, 
walking. In some cases, the acquisition of these movements was 
sought very seriously, merely as a means to an end, and in others 
appeared accidental or almost automatic; but in still others, it was 
attended with great joy in the exercise (see Movements, below). 
On the whole, as her power over her body increased, her chief joy 
came to be in the free use of her muscles. Thus it is my constant 
note during the seventh and eighth months that she lay kicking 
and rolling about the floor, or on a blanket spread on veranda or 
lawn, perfectly happy by the hour, sometimes breaking into cries 
and movements of joy. In the eighth month if one carried her about 
in the arms, she refused to be entertained by any efforts, and leaned 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. I9I 

over and looked wistfully at the ground or floor, to indicate her 
wish to be put down and left to the freedom of her own movements. 
The kicking (p. 188) at this time was of an extraordinary vigor: she 
would raise both feet as high as she could and bring them down 
with the utmost force: it seemed unaccountable that it did not bruise 
her heels badly, but she appeared to take the greatest delight in the 
exercise. For several days in the latter part of the eighth month, 
instead of this kicking, she would sometimes hold her legs up per- 
pendicularly for several seconds.^ By the middle of the ninth month, 
the rolling and kicking were succeeded by a sort of varied scram- 
bling about the floor, — sitting up and lying down, kneeling, creep- 
ing, etc.; then in the next three months standing up and sitting 
down and some beginnings of walking were added. During these 
months I constantly note her delight in being turned loose on the 
floor, or better yet the lawn, where she would tumble about at will 
with frequent shouts, crows, and babble of joy. 

Sundry minor exhibitions of pleasure in the use of her muscles 
were noted in this second half-year. In the twenty-ninth week, she 
practiced grimacing and sniffing for some days, in evident gayety; 
in the thirty-first, when her mother put her hand under her head to 
support it in the bath, she would begin to stiffen and throw her 
body, resting on her feet and her mother's hand. In the thirty- 
third week, when she was taken under the arms and swung out, she 
would lift up her body and legs and straighten her back by sheer 
muscle (getting help of course from the motion with which she was 
swung) till she was horizontal, or even till her feet were higher than 
her head, and would keep the position a second or two. In the 
same week she lifted with her left hand a valise that weighed four 
pounds, and held it about ten seconds; then several times immedi- 
ately afterward lifted it again and held it for four or five seconds. 
The feeling of weight on her arms seemed agreeable. In the 
eleventh month she took the greatest delight in the newly acquired 
accomplishment of nodding, and for several days bobbed her head 
and shoulders diligently. 

1 In the same month, Preyer's child had the habit of holding up his legs 
vertically, but with somewhat different behavior; he was interested in the sight 
of his feet, and grasped at them, while my niece seemed interested only in the 
muscular exercise, and learned to grasp at her feet and carry her toes to her 
mouth under other conditions. 



192 University of California. [Vol. i. 

In one way and another throughout the first year her movement 
was almost incessant, and any occasional period of sitting quietly 
(as once in the twenty-sixth week for an hour in church) is noted 
as unusual. 

With the second year came a period in which, the main race- 
movements being now acquired, occupations of a more mental sort 
came to the front, and pictures, language, sights, exploring and 
satisfying curiosity, overshadowed the simple muscular activities. 
Many of these more complex occupations, however, involved a great 
deal of muscular action, so that the child was still perpetually in 
movement; and in some it was hard to find much motive beyond 
that of using her muscles. The liking for a feeling of weight men- 
tioned above was an example. In the thirteenth month, when first 
walking, she liked to carry about a weight, doll or book, merely for 
the sake of carrying it, and the fancy recurred at intervals through- 
out the year. At the beginning of the seventeenth month she lifted 
a rubber bag of water that weighed seven pounds; in the eighteenth 
month she took up a seven-pound flat-iron in one hand and walked 
off with it; in the twentieth, she picked up a two-pound dumb-bell in 
each hand, held them a few seconds, and then dropped them. In the 
nineteenth month, finding a pile of pamphlets in a waste-basket, she 
carried twelve, one at a time, into the next room to me; and in the 
twenty-second month she carried fifteen sticks of wood, in like 
manner, from one pile to another. Here, too, may be mentioned 
the pleasure the child experienced in suspending her own weight 
by her hands. In the seventeenth month I tried lifting her by a 
stick held in her hands.^ When she understood the idea and was 
supplied a stick that fitted her hands, she enjoyed it greatly, laughed 
aloud all the time she hung from the stick, and was eager to do it 
over and over. Each time, her hands relaxed suddenly, and she 
fell, with an expression of dismay; but was very eager to renew the 
exercise. In a few days she took an aversion to it and refused to 
repeat it, but with no appearance of fear. In the twenty-third 
month she returned to it and took pleasure in hanging for a few 

^Darwinism in the Nursery. Dr. Louis Robinson, Popular Science 
Monthly, vol. 40, p. 674. 



Shinn.] The Developmeiit of a Child. 193 

seconds; and again in the twenty-seventh month. (From her fourth 
year on, the child has been supplied with a simple apparatus — a 
rope and stick — to swing from, and has had much pleasure in it ; 
and by the sixth year she was bold and skilful in swinging from the 
branches of trees.) In the twenty-first month, finding two chairs in 
the middle of the veranda, she pushed one to the extreme west end 
of the veranda, turning the corner of the house, then turned the 
chair about and pushed it back around two corners to the extreme 
east end; then remarking, "Get another chair," brought the other 
likewise, — a distance in all of about 250 feet, over a stone-paved 
floor. 

By the latter half of the second year the higher development and 
variety of the bodily movements now attained, had once more made 
them a source of very considerable pleasure in themselves, apart 
from the mental interests they opened up; as will be more fully 
reported under the head of Movements. By the end of the year, 
however, the free running and walking, jumping, climbing, etc., had 
ceased to be so much enjoyed for their awn sakes, and mental 
interests again distinctly overshadowed muscular pleasure. 

Ebullitions of the liveliest frisking, racing, jumping, shouting, 
with intense desire for motion and noise, are noted from time to 
time (especially in the twenty-first month); it seemed impossible, up 
to the third year, for the child to sit without an occupation, simply 
looking about. All this exuberant action was doubtless in part a 
mere spontaneous discharge of energy, the expression of a high 
general well-being, and in part an indulgence in muscular action for 
the pleasure of the sensation it afforded. 

Though she had been from very early a "romping baby," fond 
of rough play, the romping of the first year had necessarily been 
of a sort in which she was rather passive (as being tossed or 
danced); but by the fourteenth month, she began to find the joy of 
active romping. In the fifty-eighth week, she frolicked with the 
dog, running at him with laughter. The sixty-fifth week she dis- 
covered the charm of "playing catch" around tables and chairs, 
with hilarious glee. No doubt the pleasure was partly in the 
dramatic element of the play (two days later, e. g., she laughed her- 
self weak when quietly playing hide and seek behind the furniture. 



1 94 University of California. [Vol. i. 

and could not tire of it); but that an intense muscular pleasure 
blends witK the dramatic interest in the active games even of adults, 
any one knows that has taken part in athletic contests.^ In the 
seventeenth month (seventy-first week) she was delighted with a boy 
some seven years older who played catch with her; as he put it, "I 
chased her round the table, and now she wants me all the time." 
When he left the room, she would follow, crying "Way! Way!" 
(Ray, his name) and seeking till she found him. In the seventy- 
fourth week she was very happy again in romping with him, though 
he was rough with her and often knocked her over, at which she 
never cried. She especially desired to be chased by him, laughing 
ail the time as she ran. Through the nineteenth month she con- 
stantly wished to play "catch," running and laughing till she could 
hardly stand. In the last week of the month she was in wild 
spirits, romping with the same nine-year-old boy; and when he 
rolled her over, threw a blanket over her head, and otherwise used 
her roughly, she took it in the highest glee. She took riotous 
pleasure in romping with the dog during the latter months of the 
year. On the last day of the twentieth month, as she was frolick- 
ing on the lawn in the highest spirits, he knocked her down by a 
sudden excited rush. She laughed heartily, called him back, and 
as he capered about near her she went into ecstasies of laughter, 
but took care to sit down each time he approached, to save herself 
a fall. Once when he rushed very close by her, almost grazing her 
as she sat, she nearly cried with laughter. She would climb all 
over him, clutching him roughly, pulling his tail and hair, shouting 
and squealing, and crying, "Sit on Muzhik!" She was especially 
pleased if he got up and walked off, tipping her over, and would 
call, "Get off!" and "Get up!" to intimate her desire to have him 
do this. As the big Russian dog, though reasonably good-natured, 
did not seem over-fond of her handling, we doubted the safety of 
such play; but she was bewitched with him, and when he was 
driven from her, set out to find him and flung herself on him with 
joy. After she had finally teased him into snapping at her (twenty- 

^ It seems to be characteristic of all unspecialized sensation that while its 
effect on the feelings is remarkably strong, and the part it plays in life enor- 
mous, it is to be found only as a substratum in activities of which something 
far more complex and definite forms the obvious part. 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 1 05 

fourth month) and was greatly interested in the experience and 
determined to repeat it (see FeeHng, p. 150, above), the dog was 
given away. She was equally fearless with another dog that was 
occasionally about, climbed all over him, and did not mind rough 
play. 

Her romping took an unpleasant turn, quite different from per- 
missible frolics, in an occasional impulse to strike with a stick, or 
(in the latter months of the second year) to fly rudely at some one 
who had her in arms, scratching or striking at the face, slapping 
and clawing at the hair, even biting a little, always in good temper, 
apparently as a rough joke. I note this from the seventeenth 
month till the end of the twenty-first. In the last quarter of the sec- 
ond year it was rare; but once at the beginning of the twenty-second 
month (seventy-second week) when lifted to kiss good-night, she 
snatched off her grandmother's glasses, then her cap, and flung 
them to the floor, likewise her grandfather's glasses when the 
chance came, and refused to kiss any of us good-night, laughing and 
romping instead. In the last week of the second year she would 
stop to ask with amusing politeness, "May I pull your hair, aunty?" 
"May I bang you, aunty?" and would give up the intention on 
receiving an emphatic no. 

With the third year, as implied above, the great interest in mus- 
cular exertion that had accompanied both the earlier and later 
development of the race-movements, disappeared. In the acquire- 
ment of these movements in the second half-year, and afterward in 
the period of delight in the fuller development (fourth half-year), 
the child had been energetic in efforts that taxed her strength and 
skill to the utmost; but now this was only partly so. In the 
twenty-seventh month, I note that she is eager to try novel and 
difficult things; but on the whole there was a disinclination to occu- 
pations that taxed her muscular skill; in the thirtieth month, I note 
avoidance even of those that called merely for muscular exertion 
without much demand of skill. "Too hard, — you do it," she 
would say. This was in striking contrast with her zeal in the use 
of her eyes, ears, and mind. There were many exceptions, how- 
ever, to her dislike to hard muscular effort in this half-year; at times 
she would pull and tug to climb, and dig till she was red in the face. 
14 



196 University of California. [Vol. i. 

She was, in a more desultory way, about as active in this year as in 
the second: the ebullitions of frisking, racing, and jumping con- 
tinued, and notes of her sitting quietly without visible occupation, 
prattling to herself or seeming in thought, though they do occur, 
are very few. We rarely ventured to take her to church, but tried 
it once, at Easter (when she was two years and a half old); she 
proved hopelessly restless, and soon got up and walked outdoors. 
Brought back toward the end of the service, she behaved very ill, 
scrambled about the seat and kicked up her heels, in marked con- 
trast to the decorous behavior of several other little things of her 
age. (Even at seven years old, she cannot sit the sermon quietly 
through, without occupation, as they do, but draws and scribbles 
on a paper, reads the hymns, etc.) 

She still experienced great joy in a good romp, but not as much 
in proportion to other pleasures as in the second year. Once in 
her twenty-fifth month a boy of six so won her heart by romping 
and running with her that whenever he stooped for any reason she 
would seize the chance to run up and embrace him. Her games of 
chasing took the more dramatic form of "playing bear," with much 
springing, growling, running, and seizing, peals of laughter and 
shouts of delight. Other active frolics were also sought: ^. ^., if 
I lay on the lounge, she loved to fling herself upon me, tumbling 
and trampling over me, and to be pushed and rolled off, taking and 
giving as rough play as was possible without harming her, with 
the greatest merriment and the utmost recklessness on her part. 
(A hard romp, especially with father or uncle, is enjoyed still, 
at seven years; most of all a pillow-fight, in which she asks little 
consideration for her size and strength, and takes pretty heavy blows 
with merriment.) 

She had been broken of pulling hair and flying in rude play at 
our faces, but the disposition to such roughness was only modified. 
A little broom that was given her on her second birthday was 
used to strike about with far more than to sweep, for a few weeks. 
In the latter half of the third year I note repeatedly that almost 
everything the child has to be checked or punished for, is some 
ebullition of boisterousness, or rough, unsympathetic horse-play, 
— shouting and kicking her feet at the table, banging the furniture 
with sticks, gayly assaulting us or the cat (her roughness to whom 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 197 

became a constant matter of discipline in the thirty-fifth month, 
and on into the fourth year). In the thirty-sixth month, fiinding a 
handy, smooth stick, she struck her grandmother sharply, — with- 
out the least temper, merely because the stick was tempting. (This 
last incident called so pressingly for prompt action that in her 
mother's absence I made a very rare exception to the rule never to 
strike another person's child, and turned the stick against herself 
This she took in excellent part and related quite approvingly to her 
mother at night that she did 'pank damma wiv a 'tick, and aunty 
had to 'pank her wiv de 'tik.) By the end of the year, these 
roughnesses were mainly checked, except toward her grandfather 
and uncle, who rather encouraged them.^ 

In the twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh, and twenty-eighth months, 
action songs were a good deal enjoyed: "The Barberry Bush" was 
liked much better than any finger-songs; and in this, the trunk 
and leg movements, as in "'kipping to 'cool," were preferred to the 
hand and arm movements. 

That the child experienced not only pleasure but more or less 

^ There was something very hard to understand and classify in this rough 
play impulse. It had to my observation something peculiarly primitive and 
involuntary about it, — a quality that mothers recognize when they say, "The 
child is possessed to do so and so." There was an element of cruelty in it, 
which in the early part of the fourth year diflferentiated itself in her treatment 
of the cats; there was a horse-play much like that which continues so strongly 
until maturity in boys if their training is neglected, or that which is common in 
the lower animals; and there was a singularly primitive joy in the sensation of 
striking, especially when suggested by a stick in the hands. Thus in the 
thirty -ninth month, she came to me and said cheerfully, "I was bad to Uncle 
Joe." — "Were you," I asked: "Why?" — "O, just for fun! I hit him with a 
stick. It'was good fun, — lots of fun." There was some bravado in this, but 
I did not doubt she had stated her motive truly enough. About a month later, 
after being charmingly good for a long time, she had another outbreak of 
rowdyism, and while her grandfather was saying grace — a ceremony which 
she had from very early learned to treat with strict reverence — she went and 
got her little broom, and started on a circuit of the table, dealing a thump to 
each bowed head in turn, till seized; when she remarked with enjoyment, 
"First I hit papa, then I hit grandpa, then I hit grandma, and then I was going 
to hit aunty." 

It is evident that the subject has wide relations, both in animal and human 
psychology; but these are better noted under some category of moral or social 
development. 



198 Universifj' of California. [Vol. 1. 

intellectual interest in muscular sensation, — that it was a subject 
of attention to her, — was apparent from a few indications. On 
the forty-seventh day, she showed ludicrous astonishment at a 
small, high crow (the first she had ever uttered), which had sud- 
denly interpolated itself among the more familiar sounds she was 
making; there was no reason from her general behavior about 
sounds to suppose that the sound alone, without the novel muscular 
sensation, would have excited such attention. In this same week 
appeared the experimenting with the tongue — putting out and 
withdrawing the tip — mentioned above (Sense of Contact, p. 136). 
Experimenting with the vocal organs in the fourth month has also 
been mentioned (p. 189). As soon as she was four months old, the 
baby was seated daily in a horse-collar on the floor, where she 
could sit well supported, and amuse herself. Within a week, she 
began bending herself back over the collar. The sensation (which 
was, of course, partly one of contact and partly muscular; perhaps 
sensations of equilibrium were also involved) seemed to wake a 
special curiosity and interest, and she repeatedly bent her body 
back with great exertion ; bent it so far that the back of her head 
touched the floor. This touch sensation, which amazed her greatly 
(see Sense of Contact, p. 143), so added to the interest of bending 
back that she kept it up persistently for a week longer; the next 
day, in my arms, she began throwing herself back over my arm, 
and when I let her go as far as she would, holding her firmly, she 
bent back with a serious and interested face till her head was hang- 
ing downward. I did not dare let her persist as long as she would, 
afraid she might strain herself. In the following days she would 
bend back till her head rested on the floor, then recover herself 
Once (135th day she abandoned the breast after nursing a little, 
sat up, looked at me with a broad smile, then began bending herself 
back over her mother's arm. 

In the sixth month (163d day) the baby's grandmother seated 
her in a large easy-chair, where, nestling about and slipping down, 
she got her head on the arm of the chair. She then stiffened and 
raised her body till it rested on her heels and the back of her head. 
At this she gave a squeal of delight; then relaxing her body, she 
stiffened it again, and repeated the experiment several times. (This 
incident I did not see myself; it rests on the grandmother's report.) 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 1 99 

At eleven months old, the baby had so far recognized her vari- 
ous actions and associated them with words as to be able to obey 
twenty-seven dififerent directions. At fifteen months, out of sixty- 
five words used by her, seven, or perhaps eight, were action words. 
In naming these actions, of course, what the child recognized and 
named was partly her own sensation in performing them, and partly 
the sight of herself and others doing so. In the twentieth month, 
"hard" appeared, in the expression "too hard," of something she 
thought she could not do. In the twenty-second I find it as an 
adverb, "Ruth pull hard." In the twenty-ninth month, I find this 
comment: "This is a hill. We walk up. That is pretty hard. 
Oo-oop! It makes me s3.y '00-oop/'" "Rough," recorded as first 
used in the twenty-first month, referred to roughness discerned 
not by the touch, but by the muscle sense in walking over it; 
thus in the twenty-second month the child apologized as follows 
for asking to be carried: "Wu' fai' fa' dowdn. Gow too wu'," — 
Ruth fraid fall down; ground too rough. "Heavy" I find used 
intelligently from the twenty-second month. 

Signs of fatigue in the muscles were exceedingly rare. There 
may have been an element of muscular sensation in the weariness 
of continued position spoken of below (p. 208); but activity, during 
the whole of the first year, seemed incapable of tiring the baby. A 
few exceptions to this statement will be found under the head of 
Movements, but on the whole, the great amount of exertion 
expended during the first year in learning to sit, creep, stand, walk, 
etc., was surprisingly free from any visible effect of fatigue. 

During the second and third years also, although the child was 
incessantly active, my notes record scarcely any instances of fatigue. 
The most marked case of it was in the second year, at eighteen 
months, when one evening, after a hard romp with an older child, 
instead of being as usual very unwilling to stop play, she came and 
leaned against me, and when I took her in my lap, asked for "bed," 
wanted to be laid in her crib at once, and nearly cried when told 
she must be undressed first. Had she had other children to play 
with, especially older children, she doubtless would have tired" her- 
self out often. At the beginning of the twentieth month, she once 
cHmbed the stairs up and down, refusing to stop, until she had 



200 University of California. [Vol. i. 

climbed about i6o steps in all; toward the end she was evidently 
very tired, and her feet dragged, though she persisted. I find men- 
tion several times in the second and third years that she played till 
she was "hot and tired," or "laughed till she was tired," and some- 
times that she asked to be carried on rough ground, or after walk- 
ing a good deal. 

The word "rest" was used as early as the seventeenth month, 
(she would sit down to "rest" when climbing the stairs, or on a 
stone or box when outdoors); and "tired" by the nineteenth. In 
the twenty-fourth month, she would say, "Ruth so tired!" flinging 
herself down ; and once : "You tired. You been outdoors, so you 
lay down." It is doubtful, however, whether she used either word 
in any but an imitative way within the first three years. 

2. Sensation of Motion. 

The probability is that sensation of motion exists from the first, 
and that had I watched for it, I might have detected evidence of it 
in the form of some change in the baby's expression or behavior 
when she was moved; but as she was carried about as little as pos- 
sible in the first month, and merely lifting her from one place to 
another affected the sense of position even more than that of motion, 
the opportunity for such an observation was slight. The only 
notes that I have concerning this sensation are notes of the pleasure 
afforded by it; and as will be seen, in most cases, the sources of the 
pleasure were not simply the sensation of motion, which soon be- 
came blent with other sensations, especially muscular ones. On 
the whole, however, it was true that during the first half-year the 
pleasure given by passive motion exceeded that of muscular activity. 
With the child's acquirement of power over her own movements, 
this relation was reversed. 

My first note of any indication of pleasure in motion (viz., that 
the first time the baby was carried about outdoors, on the twenty- 
ninth day, she showed a pleasure that must have been due either to 
the fresh air or the motion, since the brighter light seemed 
unpleasant to her) precedes by about two months my first note of 
pleasure in active movement. Enjoyment of being wheeled about 
in a baby-carriage was evident from the first time she was taken out 
thus (thirty-eighth day). That the pleasure was mainly a sort of 



Shinn.j The Developmeyit of a Child. 20I 

tranquil comfort in the feeling of motion, was evident from the 
baby's behavior: she did not smile or crow, but lay with a blissful 
expression as long as the motion continued, and soon began to fret 
if it stopped. For weeks after she was constantly desirous of sitting 
up indoors, she was content to lie down in the baby-carriage, as 
long as it was moving. In the fourth month, though indoors she 
was occupied in gazing at things with curiosity, when wheeled 
about outdoors, she paid no attention to the objects about her, but 
lay tranquilly looking before her, seeming to care only for the 
motion. The swifter motion of a drive behind horses gave a keener 
pleasure, but still tranquil in quality: on her first drive (105th day) 
she did not look about her at all, and remained perfectly silent till 
we had driven about half a mile, then uttered one long murmur of 
exceeding content, and became silent again for the rest of the drive. 
In the last week of the fourth month, a change appeared: one day 
(the 119th) instead of lying in still satisfaction, the baby began to 
utter happy murmurs as she was wheeled about, and presently 
fretted to sit up; leaned forward to watch me pluck something (the 
first time she had shown interest in the use of her eyes outdoors); 
and three days later insisted on sitting up and looking about. 
From this time her pleasure in being wheeled about, and still more 
in driving, became more complex and keener; in the eleventh month 
the mere sight of her baby-carriage excited the liveliest demonstra- 
tions of joy and desire. 

Meanwhile, in the seventh month (202d day) she showed interest 
and pleasure but not gayety at being swung in a blanket. In the 
ninth month, and again in the tenth and eleventh, I find notes of 
marked pleasure at being swung in a hammock: though usually so 
active and restless, she would lie still and smiling on my arm in the 
hammock, or sit quietly beside me. Two or three times in the 
ninth and eleventh months I put her into a basket and carried it 
about, or swung it by the handle, to her great pleasure. An excep- 
tion to the serenity of her pleasure in being carried about with a 
fairly even motion, was her laughter and glee when some one set 
her on a carpet-sweeper and trundled her about; but a considerable 
element of amusing novelty doubtless entered into this pleasure, 
and she showed much the same glee when she saw another child on 
the sweeper as when she rode on it herself. 



202 University of Calif 07mia. [Vol. i. 

The influence of motion in inducing sleep is one of the 
commonest nursery observations. My notes on this point I reserve 
for the subject of Sleep. I have already referred, in speaking of 
Rhythm, under the head of Hearing (p. 119) to the superior quiet- 
ing influence of a monotonous jarring as compared to smooth 
motion. It is frequently said that trotting and jolting babies stops 
their fretting only by diversion of attention, and this is doubtless 
true in some cases; but there were many instances in which my 
niece's behavior showed that there was something agreeable and 
quieting in the motion itself Thus on the forty-eighth day her 
fretting stopped and her discontented expression changed to a 
happy one the instant her grandmother, who held her on her knee, 
began to trot her. At this time (second month) if she chanced to 
be fretting in the baby-carriage as it rolled over the smooth veranda, 
she stopped and became placid the instant it struck the gravel walk. 
In the sixth month, it was once necessary to carry her a block or 
two through the rain, so covering her, head and all, with my cloak, I 
ran with her. She had begun to protest at being thus muffled, but 
stopped at the motion, and came out smiling when I reached shelter. 
Later the same day, when a series of misadventures had left her 
grievously tired and hungry, her nap broken, her mother detained 
past nursing time, I ran with her a block or two to catch a train; 
and she forgot her troubles at once, and stopped crying as long as 
the motion lasted. 

At three months old, she liked to be tossed in her father's arms, 
and during the fourth month became very fond of a frolic, and 
would crow and smile in high glee when she was tossed in the air, 
slid down one's knees, or otherwise tumbled about; the first true 
laughter I heard from her was over such a frolic in the last week of 
this month (i i8th day); and in the first six months this was almost 
the only cause of laughter. In the fifth month (nineteenth week) she 
began to coax to be played with, with motions and cries of desire; 
my notes of this coaxing and of her laughter and delight in the 
play, are very frequent in the next three months, — for weeks 
together, almost daily. Thus on the 133d day, seated on her mother's 
foot and danced up and down (held by the arms), she wore an 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 203 

expression of rapt delight, and whenever her mother stopped she 
would set up a little cry of desire. That evening her father played 
with her at bedtime, and the next night at the same hour she whim- 
pered for a play instead of settling down to sleep. The first recog- 
nition of her father that she showed was a month later (i6oth day) 
after he had tossed and jumped her a great deal; that evening when 
he came into the room she showed expectation of a romp, looking 
at him with laughter and movements of her arms, and for some 
days after, she repeated this whenever he appeared. In the same 
week, the twenty-third, I took her in my arms and jumped up and 
down with her, to her great delight. This became a favorite play, 
and she would beg for more with cries of desire. The day she was 
twenty-four weeks old, as soon as she saw me in the morning she 
began making little wistful cries, with an earnest look into my face 
and motions of the body; and continued to show signs of desire for 
half an hour, till I gratified her. Three days later, after a frolic of 
the sort, I put her down in her mother's lap : she looked up, laugh- 
ing and springing with her body, but when I left the room she 
stared after me with an expression of surprise and grief (as I saw 
through a crack of the door), I opened the door and spoke, and 
she broke into smiles and movements again. This was repeated 
several times; then I remained out of sight. She looked sober for 
about ten seconds; then, with her usual easy surrender of desire, 
looked up to her mother's face and laughed. 

In the twenty-fourth week her father began another play that 
was very delightful to her, — ■ swinging or tossing her into her 
mother's arms, or mine, to be swung back into his; sometimes the 
three of us passed her thus from one to another. This excited great 
hilarity; she reached her arms from one to another and laughed 
aloud; and when the frolic was stopped and she was taken from 
the room, she set up a remonstrant whine. I have a number 
of notes afterward of merriment over this play and desire for it. 

In two or three cases at least, she knew very well which play 
she wanted, and when her coaxing sounds and outstretched hands 
had persuaded one of us to take her for a romp, she looked only 
moderately satisfied until the right play was hit on. 

In the second half-year, her love of this passive play continued 
for a time. During the seventh and eighth months, it was quite 



_204 University of Calif or7iia. [Vol. i. 

common for her to fret and coax for a frolic in the evening, instead 
of going to sleep ; and in the eighth month her desire to go to 
people was almost entirely according as they would frolic with her, 
— though by the end of the eighth month she had made distinc- 
tions, and while she had no use for her father unless he would toss 
and play with her, she was happy with me without the playing. 
After this her great desire for such play disappeared, displaced by 
her growing desire for self-activity: though I find a few notes in the 
tenth and eleventh months of laughter and delight in being rolled 
and tumbled about, or tossed from one person to another. Once at 
forty-four weeks old, she was very happy over being walked with 
rapidly, and for many seconds uttered a crow with each inhalation 
and a joyous murmur with each exhalation. At another time, 
when just forty-seven weeks old, she tried repeatedly to creep to a 
pitcher that stood on the floor, and each time I pulled her back by 
her dress and rolled her over on the floor, a rough treatment that 
was received with peals of laughter instead of displeasure. 

In the sixth month, I had once chanced to amuse her by joun- 
cing her up and down on the springs of a bed, a motion that pleased 
her greatly: in the tenth month this became a favorite play, con- 
stantly mentioned in my notes. She liked to have the jouncing 
violent enough to fling her about, and liked best to take it lying on 
her face, so that her face was thumped roughly into the mattress, 
at which she would laugh aloud with delight; but it pleased her 
greatly also to be flung off her balance when sitting, or on her hands 
and knees. If I stopped, she would wait a few seconds, then indi- 
cate desire to go on by springing movements of her body, or by 
rolling over with her face flat on the mattress and making little mur- 
murs of desire. The 259th day, after I had carried her into another 
room and put her down, she sat and looked earnestly at me with 
urgent chatter, an unmistakable appeal to be taken back to go on 
with the play. 

In these plays it is evident that the simple sensation of motion 
was more and more mingled with other sensations, those of touch, 
position, equilibrium, even of muscular activity, from the involuntary 
flinging about of limbs and balancing of the body. The pleasure of 
muscular action and of passive motion were almost equally mingled in 
jouncing up and down to rock the baby-carriage on its springs, or 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 205 

sitting in a little rocking-chair and making it go by movements 
of her body (at first jiggling it awkwardly, but by the forty-fourth 
week rocking it quite nicely, though her legs were too short to 
hang down over the edge of the seat) — employments that were 
much enjoyed from time to time from the thirty-second week to the 
end of the year. In the twelfth month she would persistently 
climb to her feet in the baby-carriage, to rock it from side to side, 
at imminent risk of falling. 

On the other hand, in the middle of the twelfth month (350th 
day) she laughed very much over a play in which there was no 
muscular element: merely being sent back and forth in the baby- 
carriage between her mother and me, from end to end of the 
veranda, by a push that sent it safely along the smooth pavement; then 
when her mother began to roll the carriage and reverse its motion 
with a jerk, keeping time to the motion with rhythmic sounds, the 
baby was enchanted; she would begin to laugh in joyous expecta- 
tion of each jolt as she perceived it approaching.^ 

^ The main pleasure of such a play is certainly in the arrajigement of the 
motion and sounds, — a rhythmic series, ending in a shock; all babies, so far as 
I have seen, after the first six months, are amused by rhythmic motions or 
sounds (better both joined) ending in an explosion, or sudden climax; as one 
may see by simply remarking to a baby, "Bobbj^-bob, bobby-bob, BOB," with 
accompanying demonstrations of head and hands, — or taking the little hands 
and patting them together some half dozen times, ending with a clap, — or any 
one of fifty like exercises, familiar to every nursery. If the baby is a merry 
one and not timid, such experiments will be rewarded with peals of laughter 
and pleas to continue, till the experimenter is thoroughly bored with his own 
performance. But the forms in which the rhythm and concluding jar are most 
appreciated by the baby are those that affect his own body; a series of threats 
ending with ducking the head into his bosom is more amusing than one that 
ends in a mere hand-clap (or vide the favorite play, "Creep, Mousey, Crawl"); 
and there were several instances in the case of my niece besides the above 
(see self-invented plays under Movement below; and the sliding downstairs, 
p. 207 below) which show that a heavy jar of the whole body was a particularly 
interesting form of climax. 

It seems to me clear, also, that healthy children experience little of the 
unpleasant sensation from jar that their elders do. At eight or nine years old I 
used to play, with several other children, at finding our way with shut eyes in 
a meadow that broke off" into gullies with banks some two to five feet high; 
and we thought it much better fun to miss our way and plunge over these 
banks than to reach our goal safely. If I remember right, some headaches 
resulted from going over the highest places, which led to the play's being dis- 



2o6 University of California. Lvol. i. 

In the second year pleasure in mere passive motion declined, as 
the child's power over her own body increased ; and in the nineteenth 
and twentieth months, she became positively averse to vehicles 
thus, in the eighty-seventh week, I note that she was disposed to 
whimper when she heard something said about driving, as her 
bonnet was put on, and begged, "Walk ! walk outdoors ! " and in the 
ninety-first week, that she was borne off to drive, protesting lamenta- 
bly that she wanted to "walk on feet." There are also many notes 
of unwillingness to be carried. This lasted during the whole half- 
year, but with the third year she became first reconciled to driving, 
then moderately fond of it ; and in the twenty-seventh month, though 
impatient of sitting still in any one's lap for a chat, she liked to have 
me take her in my arms and walk about, chatting with her. In the 
thirty-second month, she was greatly pleased at being set on the 
seat of a bicycle, and wheeled about. 

I find some note of liking for the hammock in the second year 
A little swing was given her on her second birthday, and swinging 
at once became a favorite amusement ; by the thirtieth month, she 
wanted to be sent as high as the ropes (over four feet long) would 
take her; in the thirty-third month especially, she begged daily to 
be swung, and swung Jiigh. She has had, in her sixth and seventh 
years, a swing with ropes eighteen feet long, and likes to be swung 
as high as the stoutest masculine arms can send her. 

During the first half of the second year, I find a few notes of her 
continued pleasure in being jounced on mattress springs, but the play 
was probably stopped as she grew rather heavy for the springs. 

She continued in this half-year to like rocking in a chair, but 
now with a smooth and gentle motion; and to be tossed, swung, 
and rolled about (as, indeed, she does still). In the sixteenth month 
she was deeply delighted when a guest took her in her arms and 
danced with her, — an entertainment she had never had before, — 
and was hardly willing to let this guest out of sight the rest of the 
day; the incident made an unusual impression on her memory, also. 
Such plays as "Shoe the horse," "This is the way the ladies ride," 

covered and stopped; but when the bank was not more than two or three feet 
high, I remember the fall and jar as an exciting pleasure. 

On the other hand, an unexpected fall and jar could frighten my niece very 
much. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 207 

"Trim-tram," "Ride away to Boston town," gave pleasure; in "Bos- 
ton town" (seventeenth month) she would begin to smile in antici- 
pation as the climax, "fall down," approached.^ In the seventy- 
second week, her father placed her on the footboard of the bed, and 
repeating, "Humpty Dumpty," tipped her over on the bed with the 
word "fall." She was delighted with this and wished it repeated a 
dozen times. In the twenty-first month, in a cable car where we 
were the only passengers, she insisted on walking back and forth 
on the empty seat the length of the car, enjoying the way she was 
flung about by the jerking of the car (guarded by me, of course, 
from falling). At twenty-one months old, she liked to go down- 
stairs, held by some one's hands, sliding on her feet from step to 
step with a racking jolt. In the twenty-eighth month, when traveling 
on the cars, her favorite occupation was to climb up on the window- 
ledge, and fling herself backward from it into our laps with entire 
abandon. 

An incident of the eighteenth month (535th day) showed an 
ability to imagine and desire (though doubtless most imperfectly) a 
joy of motion outside her experience. She had all day been running 
toward the birds that lighted on the ground, and saying "Catch ! " At 
last, when they flew up, she put up one little hand, saying "F'y !" 
in a tone of desire. "Yes, the birdies did fly," I said; but she re- 
peated longingly, " Wu' ! Wu' ! F'y ! " " Does Ruth want to fly? " 
I asked. "E" (yes). I took her and tossed her up into the air, which 
seemed rather to divert her mind than to satisfy her desire. 

The words fast and slow were used from the eighteenth month, 
in a very limited way, — of her own pace in walking, 

3. Sensations of Position. 

The complex sensation of position seemed to me to form itself 
early, since by the fourth week a certain position was quite 
distinctly associated with the satisfaction of hunger, — long before 
any sight association with the breast could be detected. Associa- 
tions of position with sleep also were quickly formed. I shall 

^ Ride away, ride away, to Boston town, 
But take care, my little girl, that you don't — fall — down!''' 
With the last words, the child is tipped backward from the knee, held by 
the hands from fallinsr. 



2o8 University of California. [Vol. i. 

speak of these associations under the heads of Hunger, and Sleep, 
however. From the middle of the second month, the baby had 
favorite positions, which she greatly preferred to ordinary lying 
down : one a position in which her grandmother held her, almost 
sitting up; another lying along the knees, feet against the body of 
the one who held her, and head in the extended palm; another 
(third and fourth months), lying up against the shoulder. The 
desire to look about her had much to do with her liking for the 
erect positions, but she evidently found them very comfortable 
also; on the knees, or against the shoulder, she would readily go 
to sleep. (See note, opposite page.) 

Sensations of fatigue, due to continuance in one position, were 
early apparent. From the first the nurse took such fatigue into 
account as among the regular causes of restlessness, and would 
change the baby's position when she was fretting and no other 
reason for discomfort appeared; and as a rule the fretting would 
ceas€. Until the baby became able to change her position herself, 
weariness was regularly announced by fretting sounds, which by 
the fourth month would rise to a whimper, and threaten a positive 
wail if she was not moved. When she had learned to turn over, 
she always did so before long if laid down on her back (latter 
part of fifth month); but soon wearied of the new position and 
fretted for relief; when she could roll over and back again, how- 
ever (seventh and eighth months), she was happy by the hour, 
rolling and kicking on the floor or lawn, without desiring the least 
attention. 

I have also a number of notes, from the end of the fourth 
month on, of her getting tired, after twenty minutes or so, of 
sitting in her high-chair, or any similarly restricted seat, and 
fretting to be taken from it, when she would at once become 
jolly. In this, however, there was probably not as much real 
fatigue from continued position as mental restlessness, and dis- 
content from the prohibition of active movement. 

The weariness from continued position, which was unmistak- 
able during the first year, and in a less degree throughout the 
second and third, was evidently a complex sensation, in which the 
vaguely unpleasant feelings arising from impeded circulation are 
likely to have made up the principal part. Probably there was 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 20Q 

also some muscular fatigue from the continuance of one set of 
contractions, — though considering the relaxed condition in which 
a young baby lies, this must have been in the earliest weeks, an 
unimportant element, if it existed then at all. Pressure from the 
weight of the body on the muscles and skin would have more 
share in the discomfort.^ We ourselves experience numberless 
incipient sensations of weariness, pressure, and restraint, and 
relieve them, scarcely consciously, by all manner of slight 
changes of position, general or local. The entire helplessness of 
the young baby thus to relieve them, even after they become 
severe, is not sufficiently remembered ; and this neglect doubtless 
accounts for much mysterious fretfulness. It is an old practice of 
careful mothers to change the position of a baby at intervals 
during long-continued sleep; partly because they believe it affords 
relief, and makes sleep easier, and partly to prevent fixed habits 
of position that will make growth unsymmetrical. 

4. Sensations of Equilibrium. 

Equilibrium sensations must have accompanied the whole pro- 
cess of acquiring the balance of head and body, and this began in 
the first month; but until its later stages, (learning to stand and walk,) 
the child's manner did not show consciousness of them. In these 
later stages feelings of insecurity, and pleasure in feelings of assured 
equilibrium, were abundantly shown. In being carried about in the 
arms of others, in being tossed, etc., she showed no sign that I 
could detect of such feelings; though they may have formed part of 
the pleasure of being tossed, swung, etc., as we ourselves experience 
them in swinging, sliding, wheeling, and the like exercises. See 
also on p. 198 above. 

I never saw any sign of a sensation of giddiness; neither swing- 
ing, rocking in the hammock, nor being tossed and swung in all 
manner of ways in people's arms, seemed able to cause it. Up to 

^ The extent to which we feel the weight of the abdominal viscera alone 
can be realized from the curious sense of relief given by certain gymnasium 
exercises, in which the weight of these viscera is taken from the muscles that 
usually bear it, and thrown upon the diaphragm. A change in the direction 
of the visceral weight probably had to do with the pleasure in being held 
erect. 



2 I O University of California. [Vol. i. 

seven years old, she has no knowledge of the sensation except when 
she deliberately produces it by spinning round and round, or by 
twisting her swing ropes and allowing them to untwist. She does 
not find the sensation disagreeable, and seeks it for amusement; 
and this is, I think, the rule with little children. Dizziness seems 
to be less easily produced in them, and to be a less disagreeable 
sensation than with us. It is unusual to find a child that is 
made dizzy by a swing; and little children love to get into an old- 
fashioned cradle, or anything that will tilt to and fro, and to rock 
themselves by the hour with considerable violence, playing at ship 
or stage. All the children that I played with as a child used to 
spin about to produce dizziness, and amuse themselves with the 
stumbling about afterward, and I do not remember finding it dis- 
agreeable. 



ORGANIC SENSATIONS. 

I. Hunger and Satiety. 

Although the baby seemed to require scarcely any nourishment 
at the first, and for a period whose length I have failed to record, 
(certainly more than forty-eight hours,) seemed comfortable and 
well without food, yet some sensation of hunger or thirst, which 
it required only a little warm sweetened water to satisfy, was shown 
by signs that the nurse could recognize. As soon as placed at the 
breast she sucked strongly; and in the following days there was 
some little crying from hunger, which the nurse seemed able to dis- 
tinguish quite certainly from crying for colic, though I was not 
able to do so. 

Until nearly the end of the tenth week, the interval between meals 
was two hours, but hunger appeared somewhat irregularly, often 
some little time before the expiration of the interval; once (50th 
day) the baby was fiercely hungry in an hour and a half (In this case 
she had been awake, bathed, talked to, and played with during the 
whole time, though without showing any excitement. I had an 
impression that as a rule hunger was hastened by an excess of 
occupation for the brain and senses, but I did not see any distinct 
evidence of this except in the one instance; the conditions were 
probably too complex. Conversely, it was certainly true that sleep 
delayed hunger.) On the 76th day she refused to take the 
breast until four hours and a half had passed, and after that would 
not take it at a less interval than two hours and a half, so this be- 
came the regular period. By the fifteenth week the baby some- 
times positively refused to nurse at this interval, turning her head 
away and holding it so rigidly that it could scarcely be forced to 
the breast. She would then become hungry about half an hour 
later; so in the sixteenth week the interval was extended to three 
hours. In the first week of the seventh month, i88th day, she re- 
fused to eat at the interval of three hours; the next day at three 
hours and a half; two weeks later, she often refused to eat till four 
hours had passed, though sometimes she insisted on food in two 
and a half hours. 

15 (-^^ 



212 University of California. vol. i. 

In the first two months, when hunger was apt to anticipate the 
two-hour interval, it was not thought best to break much into the 
regularity of feeding, and the baby was sometimes kept waiting ten 
or fifteen minutes after she was hungry. At these times hunger 
seemed to come on her suddenly, her pleasant mood changing at 
once into fretting, without any intervening gradations; then if waiting 
was prolonged, the little discontented noises would rise to crying, 
sometimes loud and imperative, sometimes a sort of complaining cry 
that rose to wails and sank again to murmurs. On the 45th day I 
find moving the arms and pursing the lips as in sucking mentioned 
as signs of hunger, and for about two months afterward sucking 
movements and sometimes smacking sounds were regular signs of 
moderate hunger; sometimes her fist, accidentally brought to her 
mouth when she was hungry, was sucked. If her face was held up 
to one's cheek when she was hungry, she would lay hold on the 
cheek with her lips and suck it frantically. In the fourth month 
pursing the lips, sucking, and smacking, became habits without any 
connection with hunger; in the sixth month I thought smack- 
ing denoted hunger, but it was not done regularly enough to make 
me sure of this. On the 46th day I mention a doubling and stiffen- 
ing of the body while crying with hunger. After the baby had 
begun herself to extend the interval of nursing, it was rarely that 
hunger anticipated the offering of the breast, and when it did it was 
only in a moderate degree; I find but a single record of crying" for 
hunger, and only now and then of fretfulness and complaining 
noises. In the sixth month when the baby was taken on her 
mother's lap and unbuttoning the dress began, these sounds would 
pass into an excited whimpering, with tugging at the dress. Once 
in the ninth month I note that she cried for the breast when the 
time came and nursing was for some reason postponed after her 
mother had once taken her: I mention expressly that it was rare for 
her to seem thus eager and hungry. 

Sensibilityto disagreeable impressions was heightened by hunger : 
to be dressed while hungry, e. g., was a great grievance. While 
hunger was being satisfied, on the other hand, sensibility was 
lowered, if I may generalize from the experiments recorded under 
Hearing, 23d day (p. 107). Yet once while nursing she was con- 
siderably startled by a chunk of coal dropped on the hearth, (134th 
day, see Hearing, p. 108.) 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 213 

It seemed evidence of the importance of the sensation that the 
satisfaction of hunger (together with a sensation of position) made 
the material of the first distinct association, at three weeks old. I 
noticed at this time that when the baby was crying with hunger, 
she would at once become quiet on being lifted in the arms in the 
position usual in nursing, or laid on the bed beside her mother, 
where she was often nursed. By the seventh week, when crying 
loudly with hunger, she would stop as soon as she was lifted, as if 
in expectation of being laid in her mother's arms, or when already 
in her mother's lap, of being raised to the breast. On the 
49th day, I saw her open her mouth for the nipple when her 
mother chanced to lift her into the nursing position, though 
it was not nursing time, she was not hungry, and the dress was 
not open, and up to the tenth week, she would as readily stop her 
cries when lifted to any one else's arm as her mother's. The early 
association between sucking movements and hunger (45th day) has 
been spoken of just above. Another early association connected 
with hunger, approaching nearer to real memory, was due to the 
mother's habit of washing out the baby's mouth with a soft cloth 
before nursing her ; on the 47th day the baby stopped fretting when 
this was done, just as when lifted in the arms to be nursed; and 
afterward showed in other ways plainly that she associated the 
ceremony with the coming satisfaction of hunger. 

The playing, or experimenting, with the tongue and lips that ap- 
peared in the seventh week, I have referred to interest in touch sensa- 
tions (p. 136, above). So too with the tendency to put everything 
to the mouth, to lick, suck, and bite, so conspicuous in the first 
year: I refer it more to touch interest, and to ancestral habit now 
become meaningless, than other observers have done. ^ Neverthe- 
less, association with the pleasure of food in the baby's individual 
experience may have its influence, in both cases. This tendency 
appeared in my niece in the tenth week, with putting the fists 

1 "Probably we have here a case of primitive logical inference: up to this 
time sucking and tasting were the most important strong, agreeable sensations 
the young being has known; when, therefore, he has a new agreeable sensation 
{e. ^., of a bright color, a round, smooth body, a soft surface), it is brought 
into association with the lips and tongue, through which the pleasurable feeling 
at taking in the sweet milk was received." Preyer, The Senses and the Will, 
p. 249. 



214 University of California. [Vol. i. 

to the mouth constantly, sucking and mumbling whatever fraction 
df them she could get inside, and putting them back when taken 
away; of its farther development I shall speak under a later head. 
Opening the mouth as an expression of pleasure (twelfth week), 
may have been a reminiscence of the breast. 

In spite of these indications of the importance of the sensation, 
and the imperativeness of the demand for food sometimes in the 
first and second months, I could not see that hunger, even in these 
earliest months, was as important in consciousness, compared with 
other sensations, as I looked to find it. In the ninth and tenth 
weeks the desire to be lifted to a sitting position was expressed by 
just such fretting at first and imperative wailing afterwards as in the 
case of hunger; and there was on the whole less crying over hunger 
than over being laid down flat when she wished to be erect. In its 
first stages, hunger could be driven from consciousness for many 
minutes by other sensations. During the second month and most 
of the third, the sound of the piano would stop the fretting for five 
or ten minutes, — rarely the outright crying after hunger had become 
imperative, but I note one instance (45th day) when the fretting had 
almost reached the wailing point before the baby was carried to the 
piano, but as soon as the notes began she became quiet, and lay 
perfectly content and attentive some five minutes, then began to 
move, purse her lips, and at last to fret a little; we did not prolong 
the experiment to see how soon the actual point of wailing would 
be reached again, as the time for nursing had now arrived. Watch- 
ing the piano keys while some one played, together with listening, 
diverted her completely from hunger for ten minutes or more on 
the 57th day. It was easier to divert her from hunger (I note in the 
tenth week) than from the discomfort of being dressed. On the 
46th day, though she had been fretting with hunger for some 
minutes, when at last I laid her in her mother's arms she chanced 
to catch sight of some white clothes hanging in the sunshine out- 
side the window, and her attention was absorbed in the sight for 
some seconds. At another time (56th day) she caught sight of a 
red ribbon at her mother's neck, stopped nursing, and would not go 
on till the interesting object was put out of sight. In the fourth 
month she often stopped nursing to throw back her head, look at 
her mother's face, and smile. The I22d day she repeatedly lifted 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 2 1 5 

her head to look at me if I spoke while she was nursing. The 133d 
day, after nursing a little, she sat up and looked at me with a broad 
smile of satisfaction, then began to bend herself back as if in renewal 
of the experiment in touch and muscular sensation she had been 
engaged in (see p. 198, above), caught sight of a brass caster on a 
chair, and remained so fixedly gazing at it that she could not be 
induced to resume nursing till she had lost sight of it (see Sight, 
p. 81). In the sixth month, after showing some eagerness and im- 
patience when about to be nursed, as mentioned above, diving- at 
the breast as soon as it was uncovered and getting the nipple into 
her mouth herself, she would nurse eagerly for but a minute or two, 
then very leisurely, stopping at intervals to sit up and play, return- 
ing from time to time to the breast for a httle more. The 157th 
day, e. g., I came into the room while she was nursing: she looked 
up at my entrance and began to laugh, sat up and put out her 
hands, and when I knelt down beside her, played with my head 
awhile, then sat looking gravely and attentively at me while I talked 
to her mother, breaking into smiles when I looked at her or spoke 
to her; presently she began to reach about for something to get 
hold of; she could not be persuaded to resume nursing for some 
time. Soon other occasions: she was almost always ready, after 
satisfying the first hunger, to desert the breast for a frolic, or to 
listen, look about, and play; I find note of it up to the last week of 
the eighth month. See Sight, p. 24, for her diversion from nursing 
by interest in a knot of cords on an ottoman, — a striking instance, 
because of her remembering the knot all the time she was nursing, 
and sitting up again from time to time to look for it. 

Sleep was not easily broken by hunger. Six hours was a 
common period of sleep in the first and second months, and seven 
hours not infrequent in the second month; on the 58th day she 
slept eight hours continuously, and on the 63d day, nine and one- 
fourth hours, — two hours being all this time the regular interval 
between meals, and sometimes too long an interval for her desire 
when awake. Though sleep no doubt postponed greatly the con- 
ditions of hunger, these must have arrived and reached considerable 
intensity before the end of these longest periods, yet without break- 
ing her sleep. Her behavior immediately on awaking showed 
hunger sharply present: in the case of the eight-hour sleep, she 



2i6 University of California. [Vol. i. 

waked with a frantic cry of hunger, that roused a sound sleeper in 
the room above ; after the nine and a quarter hour sleep, she did 
not cry, but fell to sucking her fist vigorously as soon as she was 
awake. In one case (37th day) she dropped asleep on returning 
from a drive, before she could be put to the breast, just at the close 
of the two-hour interval, when hunger must have been already 
present or close at hand, and slept four hours; and even then 
showed no sign of waking, so her mother waked her to nurse. 
In the eighth and ninth months she repeatedly slept through the 
midnight nursing time, thus dropping out one of her daily meals. 

Nor did I find the satisfaction of hunger the great, dominant 
pleasure of the early months, as other observers have done. She 
nursed from the first with energy, and with an expression of great 
content, (eyes closed, as I have noted above. Sight, p. 12; not 
open, as Preyer records); in the second month, she uttered little 
grunts as she sucked, — probably merely from losing breath, but 
they certainly had a sound of high satisfaction, and similar sounds 
were made when she was lying in great general contentment on 
the lounge. Still, from the first, there was just as marked an 
appearance of pleasure in the bath, and after the middle of the 
second month, demonstrations of much higher pleasure in sights, 
such as faces, a spot of sunlight, strips of color; these she greeted 
with movements of hands and feet, while she panted 'in short, 
audible breaths, — or in the third month, with smiles and murmurs. 
Once (47th day) she showed this high enjoyment, with movements 
and panting, from a general sense of freedom and well-being, as 
she lay naked after her bath; but never in connection with food. 
So again in the fifth month I note that her smiles, crows, gurgles, 
and movements of hands and feet are for pleasure chiefly in faces 
and voices, and secondly in general well-being, but not in eating. 
Her first special interest in a person (in the fifth month) was not 
in her mother, the source of supplies, but in her grandfather, who 
played with her most to her liking. 

She never took more food than she wanted, and regurgitation 
of the milk scarcely happened half a dozen times during the whole 
period of nursing. From the fourth month she would stop de- 
cisively when she had had enough, thrusting out the nipple and 
turning her head away. . 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 217 

Though hunger and its satisfaction played a smaller part in 
the baby's direct consciousness than I had expected, its effect on 
her general condition and mood was controlling. With the 
beginning of the 'second month it began to be noticeable that 
after being fed, if she was at the same time warm, dry, wide awake, 
and in entire health, she was not only in the highest good temper, 
but at the best in activity and mental alertness; in at least one 
case (47th day), I noticed at such a time a very notable advance 
-Step in development (see Grasping, below). 

The 137th and 138th days she wanted constantly to be amused, 
making sounds of dissatisfaction and desire. When diverted with 
a plaything she would cease the whimper and utter happy gurgles; 
but by the afternoon of the 138th day she grew more and more 
restless, and kept up her complaining cry incessantly except when 
walked with. As the child seemed to be in perfect health and 
abundantly fed, it was hard to tell what was the trouble, but the 
grandmother said that she seemed like a baby in need of nourish- 
ment, and that though the mother's milk was apparently quite suf- 
ficient, it might have been affected in quality by a toothache from 
which she had been suffering for days, and advised a little supple- 
mentary nourishment; so the baby was at once given four table- 
spoonfuls of cream and hot water. The effect was quite magical, 
and I was called downstairs about half a minute after the dose had 
been administered, to see a transformed baby kicking and smiling 
on the rug in perfect content. For some days one daily meal of 
this diluted cream, supplementing the mother's milk, kept her well- 
fed and content. 

Apparently in this case the discomfort had not been due to any 
definite sensation of hunger, of which no signs had been shown, 
but to a general organic discomfort from defective nutrition. It 
could not have been due to any toxic condition of the mother's 
milk, but only to a slight impoverishment in its quality, since the 
cream was substituted for the natural milk only once a day. It was 
noticeable that the presence of food in the stomach instantly re- 
lieved the discomfort, apparently before the effect through the cir- 
culation could have been felt; but it is common enough with every 
one to have food instantly relieve faintness, depression, and other 
apparently remote effects of insufficient nourishment. 



2 1 8 University of California. [Vol. i. 

On the 171st day occurred another instance of instantaneous 
relief from great general discomfort: the child had been for some 
hours sleepy, tired, hungry, frightened by a stranger, and separated 
from her mother, whom she had for the first time missed and cried 
for; but when at last she had been fed, she rolled over on the bed 
from her mother's breast, looked up and laughed in my face, and 
was ready to come to me and play, though she had been crying in 
my arms just before, afraid of being separated from her mother. 

The foregoing notes concern entirely the period of nursing. 
Between the twenty-third and forty-sixth weeks (see detailed ac- 
count of diet at the end of this chapter) this period overlapped that 
of general food, as the mother's milk failed and was gradually 
replaced by other nourishment. There was thus at no time any 
definite weaning, and other habits of food were entirely established 
by the time nursing was given up; the baby was hardly aware of 
the transition. Nevertheless, in the first experiences of artificial 
feeding, the discomfort of taking milk from a spoon as compared 
with nursing at the breast was sometimes obstinately resented, and 
now and then it was necessary, in order to get it coaxed down at 
all, to divert the baby's attention with a little bell while the spoon 
was placed to her lips; she would then swallow the milk absently, 
without noticing and protesting against the spoon. A little later 
(twenty-fourth week) she discovered that she could scatter the milk 
about by a sputter with her lips just as the spoon reached them, 
and preferred this to swallowing it, so a bottle was substituted, with 
which she tried in vain to play the same trick. In the eighth 
month a cup succeeded the bottle; this too was disliked, and she 
had to be coaxed and urged through the daily meal that was taken 
from it. To be urged to take food from either cup or bottle when 
she was sleepy was a serious grievance, over which she sometimes 
cried hard. 

During the whole period of transition there was much fluctuation 
in the baby's appetite, and as her food became more varied, it was 
impossible to tell how much of her behavior toward it was due to 
taste, and how much to organic sensation. Hunger was scarcely 
ever shown: once (266th day) the baby cried for the breast when 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 219 

she was put off after the time had come and she had been taken 
into her mother's lap to be nursed; I mention with this note that 
it is rare for her to appear thus eager and hungry. During a rail- 
road trip in the forty-third week, when she was hungry she would 
point to the satchel in which crackers and a bottle of milk were 
kept, and once, having eaten all the cracker in her hand, she 
pointed to the floor with an urgent sound, for the crumbs. In the 
same week she expressed desire for food by begging sounds, rising 
once to a clamor of impatience. A few days later (304th day) when 
her mush appeared at the breakfast table, she pointed to it with 
laughter and clamor of eagerness. Desire for food, and pleasure in 
eating it, were not infrequent, but it was not usually as clearly due 
to appetite as it seemed to be in these cases, but rather to taste, 
some favorite food being the object of desire. New foods were 
sometimes accepted with eagerness, but after a few weeks ceased to 
excite pleasure (see above, Taste, p. 163). The most consistent 
demonstrations of desire and pleasure were for fruit-juice (Taste, 
p. 165), which could hardly have had much to do with the satisfac- 
tion of hunger, yet may have met some organic need. In the 
fortieth week, she would refuse to take her milk in her high-chair 
at the table, and beg to be put down on the floor, where she was 
willing to take it in small doses, interspersed with play; she would 
from time to time creep to her mother's side, pull herself to her feet, 
and hold up her head and open her mouth for a drink of milk, then 
creep away again. Lack of appetite and indifference to food are 
often mentioned in my notes, usually when there was no ill health 
to account for it. In the tenth and eleventh months especially, as 
the proportion of food that could be had from the breast became 
inconsiderable, it was difficult to get the baby to take enough food 
for proper nourishment, and she grew perceptibly thinner; she had 
been during the first half-year a remarkably plump baby, and it was 
not till the forty-second week that the deep crease about the wrist 
disappeared. Under the circumstances, with the advice of the 
family doctor, she was given a more solid and varied diet than is 
usually allowed at that age (see below, p. 231); immediately on its 
adoption her appetite revived, and it seemed to agree well with her ; 
her weight also, which had decreased in the tenth month, returned 



2 20 University of California. [Vol. i. 

to its former rate of increase.^ Most of the signs of hunger and 
genuine eagerness for food mentioned above were at this time. By 
the forty-fifth week, however, the indifference to food is again noted, 
and she wished to diversify the uninteresting process of eating in 
all sorts of ways. For example, the 3 1 Sth day, after taking a little 
food at lunch, she began to intimate by complaining sounds and 
look and motion toward the floor, her desire to be set down ; after 
taking a few spoonfuls standing on the floor, she crept over to her 
grandmother and asked her for more ; then begged with outstretched 
arms to come to me, accepted a spoonful or two from me, then 
wished to get down to the floor again. In the afternoon she greeted 
the appearance of her mush with laughter and motions of joy, and 
scrambled from my lap to her mother's to get it, but soon tired of 
it, and the rest had to be coaxed down. The 324th day she began 
to take her food readily enough, sitting on her mother's lap, but 
soon stopped eating to point at her uncle's hat with a sound of 
desire, and intimate a wish that I should put it on ; next she wished 
to come from her mother's lap to mine and be fed there; then 
lay back on my arm, and let her mother feed her so for a few 
spoonfuls; soon tiring, began to scramble about and play with the 
hat, and coax us successively to put it on, refusing to take any 
farther interest in food. 

The last daily nursing (at midnight) was given up in the forty- 
sixth week, a glass of milk being substituted for it after a few days. 
The general conditions of appetite continued the same as during the 
last two months before weaning was complete: I constantly note 
indifference to food, and difficulty in finding things that she will eat. 

^ In an interesting record by Mrs. Edith Elmer Wood (B. L., Smith College, 
'90), which has been kindly put into my hands, I find the note that her boy was 
weaned near the end of the 12th month. He fought against the change the 
first day, was plaintive for several days, then accepted the situation and ate 
with avidity, though up to the 15th month he made frequent efforts to nurse. 
He refused a nursing bottle from the first, and drank from a cup. He was 
given milk, oatmeal, potatoes, Imperial Granum, beef juice, chicken broth, and 
toast, — a dietary not very different from that of my niece at the same age. It 
appeared to agree with him, and he improved at once in sleeping, waking only 
once and taking only one meal between 5:30 p. m. and 8 A. m. Six months 
later his mother records that he has always been in perfect physical condition, 
and has never had a really sick day in his life. Mrs. Wood's table of weights, 
however, indicates a slightly checked growth at the time of weaning. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 22 1 

She would not eat more than three times a day, (once only I note 
that she gets a fraction of a fourth meal at the family dinner, some- 
what later than her own); and even when she liked some offered 
food pretty well, she had to be followed about with it and coaxed to 
eat. She would sit in her high-chair and take a little, then beg to 
get down; creep under the table and find her grandmother, get into 
her lap and take a little more, then slip down again and creep about 
the floor, take a little more standing by her mother, etc. "Prefers 
playing about to eating," I note in the forty-eighth week. Occa- 
sionally pleasure in some food, or comparatively good appetite, is 
noted, but the rule is indifference to food. Since this readiness to 
desert food for play, or to intersperse eating with attention to other 
things, was equally marked in the nursing period, (p. 215, above) it 
had nothing to do with the change of food/ 

It will be remarked at once that hunger is a sensation which 
has little chance to make itself felt in a well cared for child, whose 
needs are always anticipated : and it is true that when this baby's 
lunch was once late for an hour, (at just eleven months old,) making 
about 5 Y2 hours' interval, there was a perceptible increase of appetite; 
and again in the same week, when she had slept three hours later 
than usual, an hour or two past her breakfast-time, her first act on 
waking was to climb to her feet in the crib and reach for the cup 
that held the remains of her midnight lunch. But I should certainly 
have expected that an active and healthy child, even though regu- 
larly fed, would find the interval between three meals a day long 
•enough for a considerable development of appetite. 

^ Mrs. Beatty's record gives an instance of tlie suspension of interest in food 
by a more mental interest, in the eleventh month. She had brought her baby 
in from a ride, and gave him to the nurse to hold while she prepared his 
supper ; and tht nurse, having occasion to go to the basement, where the kittens 
lived, carried him with her, and came back without stopping to show him the 
kittens. The baby began to cry, and the nurse, guessing the trouble, asked if 
it was the kittens he wanted ; he answered by demonstrations of desire, but his 
mother now put him in his high-chair, and offered his food. The baby refused to 
touch a mouthful, turning from it and holding out his hands to the nurse and 
crying, till she took him to see the kittens ; after which he ate his supper 
contentedly. 

Mrs. Sharpe's boy at one year, though he habitually preferred his mother, 
would leave her readily for the maid at the suggestion of food. 



2 22 University of California. [Vol. i. 

With the second year a considerable increase of interest in food 
was visible. I find but one reference to downright hunger (" Waked 
from a nap very hungry"), in the seventy-ninth week; but the child 
often asked for something to eat between meal-times, and was usually 
given something, fruit, cracker, or cooky, so that there was little 
opportunity for hunger. Her appetite was good as a rule, and her 
food enjoyed, and she sometimes showed eagerness for it. These 
expressions of eagerness, however, were almost always for some 
favorite food, so that it was impossible to say how far the desire of 
agreeable taste caused them, and how far appetite. Thus in the 
fifty-third week she clamored for her sweet potato all the time it 
was being prepared; in the fifty-sixth, and at intervals later during 
the year, she would squeal and shout for sundry desired articles of 
food, and sometimes ask for more when her portion was eaten. 
Once in the seventy-seventh week I showed her some small new 
potatoes cooking, and told her they were for her; she appropriated 
them as soon as they appeared at table, with a jubilant yell of, 
"Taty!" and ate them all (four) with zeal. See also instances of 
pleasure in food under Taste, above; especially pp. i68, 169. 

Though eating counted for more than in the first year among 
her pleasures and desires, doubtless because the gratification of taste 
was now added to the satisfaction of appetite, yet even with this re- 
enforcement, it is quite striking to see how much larger a part see- 
ing, hearing, and doing played than eating. In the fifteenth month 
I once note that interest in food suspends all other interests; and 
once in the twentieth month that fruit, sweets, and meat rank 
with going outdoors as the objects of prime desire ; once also, in the 
thirteenth month, that favorite foods are next after going outdoors 
the chief object of desire: but with these exceptions food is always 
mentioned in a subordinate place among the regular objects of 
desire, after such things as pictures, learning words, exploring up- 
stairs, jouncing on mattress springs, dolls, playing with books, etc. 
Among occasional pleasures also, a host are recorded that gave live- 
lier joy than food: such as going out to see the moon, which caused 
a "passion of joy" (thirteenth month); using a fork, in the fifteenth 
month; carrying a muff, in the same month. Other interests still 
easily diverted her from food, and she was almost without exception 
reluctant to leave play, and especially outdoor play, for her meals- 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 223 

See Taste, p. 169, for several instances; some others may be men- 
tioned : — At seventeen months, brought indoors to dinner, she 
cried to go out again ; in the nineteenth month, called to go down- 
stairs to lunch while playing with my books, she went readily, say- 
ing, "See grandma!" but once there, begged to go back, and 
consented with very ill grace to eat her lunch; in the twentieth 
month she said, " No," plumply when told to leave her play with 
my books and go to dinner, and when carried off, begged hard to 
go back, with dinner before her eyes; later in the same month, at a 
restaurant, she was excited and eager over the novel surroundings, 
slipping down from her chair and trying to run off and explore 
everything, crying out over things seen, with slight interest in lunch. 
In the last week of the twenty- first month, she utterly refused to go 
indoors on hearing the dinner-bell. "Did not Ruth want lunch ? " 
"No." " Not even if there were raspberries ? " "No." In the last 
week of the twenty-second month, she so resented being brought 
in from outdoors that she did not want dinner, and when set in her 
high-chair appealed, "Papa take Tootyboo down?" "Aunty take 
Tootyboo down ? " and when refused, began to cry, then essayed, 
" Want see dear grandma ! " and when this failed, broke out into her 
rare wail, with tears. She was reconciled, however, when food came. 
In one case (eighty-fifth week), she was diverted from the desire to 
go outdoors by dinner, but it was the only time I have recorded, and 
she was influenced by the promise that she should go out after dinner, 
— a promise that she claimed the instant she was set down from the 
table. I have also a single note (twenty-first month) of her going 
cheerfully into the house when lunch was announced, and the note 
expressly comments on it as rare. For one or two instances, on 
the other hand, of the subordination of other interests by the idea of 
food, see Taste, p. 169. 

Desire for food, up to the sixteenth month, was regularly ex- 
pressed by the same asking sound that indicated other desires, often 
with pointing; occasional outcries of eagerness are mentioned 
above. During the fifteenth month, smacking the lips was again, 
as early in the first year, a frequent sign of desire for food. 

I have but a single note of what might be called a sensation of 



224 University of California. [Vol. i. 

pleasure in satiety: in the eighteenth month, after a good dinner, 
(535th day) she "lolled back in her chair, in a condition of ridiculous 
felicity, grunting with contented repletion." After this she became 
active, and ran about in great spirits; and I note again at the begin- 
ning of the twentieth month that "after dinner she was in boiling- 
over spirits;" but this happy activity was so common that I was not 
able to establish any regular connection between it and a preceding 
meal. 

In the third year, although her appetite seems now to have been 
almost uniformly good, and there was no trouble in having her take 
food enough, eating played a still smaller part in her desires and 
pleasures than in the second year, and is rarely mentioned at all in 
my record of them. Fruit and sweets were strongly desired dur- 
ing the whole year, and meat at times ; but these were desires mainly 
referable to taste, I thought. Once in the twenty-sixth month she 
was so interested in what she regarded as "writing a letter to Cousin 
Teddy" that she could not make up her mind to leave it, till dinner 
was almost over; and as she was making a careful and interesting 
piece of imitative scribbling, she was allowed to finish it, and sat by 
the table where others were eating dinner, diligently hatching 
little marks across a sheet of paper, without the least interest in the 
food before her; and after the "letter" was done, she insisted on 
going and putting away her pencil before she would climb into her 
high-chair for dinner. 

One or two instances of real hunger were noted in this year, 
however. In one case there had been both an unusual exhaustion 
of energy and a postponement of the hour of eating. This was on 
the first day of the year. She had taken the thirty-mile journey 
to the city, and had experienced much pleasurable excitement in 
getting a new head put on her doll at a toy-shop ; and had then 
posed at a slow photographer's, and tried to please with a dili- 
gence that was fairly pathetic for some twenty minutes, — letting 
him put the head-rest behind her head, holding up or lowering her 
chin when told, looking in the direction he charged her to, and 
holding back her eyes from wandering to her mother and me, with- 
out a single murmur or relaxation of effort; not mere passive obe- 
dience, for the effort required so carefully to conform for so long. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 225 

was very great for so young a child, and required exertion of her 
own will. On a second trial she evidently tried again to obey 
directions, but being tired and hungry, had not the patience or had 
not the nervous control for keeping a pose, and would try a little, 
then turn and drop to the floor, saying Ruth would sit down. She 
hailed the idea of going thence and especially of lunch; and (being 
especially on her good behavior that day) asked politely but wistfully 
several times before we reached the restaurant, "Mamma, may Ruth 
have lunch ? " "Aunty, may Ruth have something to eat ? " When 
we reached the restaurant, and she found herself seated before a bare 
table where she had expected food, she quivered into tears, but 
pulled herself together in the most reasonable way when assured 
that food was coming. On hearing a cup of milk ordered, she 
added very anxiously, "And something!'' and after repeating this 
without an answer, broke down again, and again stopped crying as 
soon as she was told she should have a proper lunch. After lunch, 
though her joyous spirit of the morning was toned by a little sleepi- 
ness, she seemed entirely recovered from any nervous fatigue, and it 
may have been only hunger that had caused her unusual tears be- 
fore lunch. 

Once in the twenty-seventh month she cried clamorously when 
told that she must not have anything to eat till dinner; and at 
another time, wished to come back after leaving the table, saying, 
"I did n't finish my breakfast." 

Of interest and attention excited in connection with hunger and 
eating, — her own consciousness of the sensation and act, — I 
noticed no evidence in the first year, unless acquiring the names of 
eatables could come under this head: at the beginning of the elev- 
enth month, out of 84 words whose meaning was understood, milk 
and cracker were the only food names; see also Taste, p. 173. 

Late in the sixteenth month (480th day) she pointed to the fish- 
wagon, exclaiming, "Mea' ! " — "No, fish," some one explained: "the 
man is giving fish to Gan." — "Mea'?" she repeated doubtfully sev- 
eral times; then, receiving the same answer, "Fish," each time, 
she changed to "Fi'!" and after repeating this several times, after her 
fashion, added, "Da' ?" — "Yes, to Gan."— "Ea'?" — " Yes, for us tc 
eat" She pointed to her plate: "Ea'?" — "Yes, that is for Ruth tc 



2 26 University of California. [Vol. i. 

eat, too." — "F6' ! " — "Yes, with her fork." After this, curiosity 
about eating and edibles seemed to increase. She would ask if she 
might put things into her mouth by putting them toward it, with 
"Ea'?" When told of a calla, "No, indeed, it is very bad!" she 
repeated, "Ba'," many times. She found one of the dog's old 
bones (484th day), and asked, "Ea'?" and carefully breaking off a 
bit of the dirt that crusted it, called it "mea' ," and offered it to the 
dog. Told that the meat was all gone and the bone no good, she 
repeated, "Goo' — no, no ! " shaking her head and trotting away. In 
the seventeenth and eighteenth months she would offer the dog any 
article that came handy, as a block, saying, "Eat ! " 

In the last week of the seventeenth month (513th day) she 
showed me some daffodils, asking, "Ea'? " I had just been teUing 
her I was going to take them to the city, and it is possible she 
thought I took them to eat; or she may have been thinking of a 
picture in which a cow was eating flowers. " O no, we don't eat 
flowers," I said. "Did Ruth think we ate flowers?" — "Laly? " 
— "No, not lady." — " Mam ? " — "O no, not man." — "Mamma ?" 
and so on through the family. " We only take daffodils to look 
at," I explained, after satisfying her that no member of the family 
ate them. "Loo'?" she repeated, leaning forward and gazing 
intently at the daffodils according to a pantomime just now con- 
nected with the word look; then listened intently while I explained 
that she and mamma and the rest of us ate meat, and potato, and 
bread, and rice, and the dog ate bones, and the cow grass and 
flowers, — she repeating after me such names of foods as struck 
her interest. Her similar inquiries as to whether the moon was to 
be eaten, in the next month, (541st day) have been related above 
(Sight, p. 84). In this month (eighteenth) she would often show 
articles, as a stem of sorrel, and ask if they were good to eat. Yet 
I felt some doubt whether she understood the word eat at this 
time : she used it of putting dirt in her mouth, with no intention 
of swallowing; bite also was sometimes confused with eat, and 
sometimes even with kiss, as if the action as seen, not as felt, was 
described to her mind by the words. 

She tried to make me eat for her amusement, and to feed the doll 
(as she did afterward from time to time, at first perhaps seriously, then 
in play, even to the present, seven years old), and took a good deal 



Shinn.] The Developtiient of a Child. 227 

of interest in feeding the pigs; still, these were only a few among a 
hundred experiments and amusements, and did not show a special 
curiosity about food and eating. She did not use the word food 
during the whole second year, but hinch, used at first generally of 
any meal, was by this month extended to mean any food. Asked, 
"What does Ruth eat?" she would say, "Lunch." Urged farther, 
"But what does Ruth have for lunch?" she would name potato, 
bread, etc. She took a great deal of interest in going out and see- 
ing things cooked, especially if she was to eat them; and this inter- 
est lasted at least to the end of the nineteenth month. In the first 
Aveek of the nineteenth month, she was once in a deep abstraction, 
still sleepy perhaps, after a nap, and so sensitive to any interruption 
of her mood that she put up her lip when kissed ; but when her 
grandmother said something about a chicken-bone for dinner, and 
then suggested that she would want a drink after the cracker she 
was eating, she rose slowly from her abstraction, and first asked for 
the drink, then said earnestly, as I took her in my arms, " Wu' ! 
. . Fi' ! . . Bo ' ! " adding one word after another with grow- 
ing trouble, as she found I did not understand. "Find Ruth's 
bone? " " E'! " (yes). She consented to have the search postponed 
for some other matter, then asked again to find the bone; but when 
taken to the kitchen forgot it in the favorite amusement of looking 
into all the pots on the stove and recognizing the various foods in 
preparation. She liked at this time (nineteenth month) to call our 
attention to the fact that she was eating, saying, "Up-eat! " 

In the twenty-first month it was a favorite joke to offer to eat 
impossible things, as bits of stick, asking, "Ruth eat?" or "Eat?" 
This, I thought, grew out of the serious curiosity she had had in 
earlier months as to what things really were eatable, and that in 
turn out of our taking things out of her mouth, or saying, "That 
is not good to eat." In the last week of the month the joke took 
the form of offering such uneatables to her father and mother, say- 
ing, "Mamma eat? papa eat?" and laughing. 

In the first week of the twenty-third month, the flies came about 
a slice of bread and jelly she was eating in the kitchen, and I 
remarked, "You see the flies like bread and jelly too." This inter- 
ested her much, and she began breaking off bits to offer them 
(though when she came to the end of her slice, her generosity 
16 



228 University of California. IVol. i. 

failed, and she reclaimed the flies' portion). In the ninety-seventh 
week (the same month) she was very much interested in compar- 
ing her own dietary with that of her new baby cousin. 

With the beginning of the twenty-fourth month, plenty 
appeared, — "Ruth had plenty;" this was used of other things as 
well as food, and so did not express merely the sense of satiety of 
appetite. Hungry did not appear at all in the second year; 
"Ruth want" something to eat, covered the ground well enough for 
practical purposes, but did not show conscious recognition of the 
sensation. 

Early in this month, her grandmother told her a story of two 
little girls going to school, — the simplest possible narrative of 
their starting from home with lunch-pails in hand, playing with 
their mates, reciting their lessons, and coming home to their 
mammas; it proved to have a powerful charm, and we were all 
called on to tell it from time to time, even to the end of the third 
year. I suspected by the time it had lasted a few weeks that its 
charm lay largely in the lunch-pails (or baskets), whose contents 
were carefully described always : in the last week of the twenty- 
fifth month, she asked for it as the "story about little girl go school 
with her lunch in a basket," and displayed deepened interest when 
lunch-time arrived in the story. The first day of the twenty-sixth 
month she asked for it thus: "Tell story about little girl that went 
to school and ate lunch. And two cookies." The special interest 
in the lunch seems to have faded after this, and in the thirty-fifth 
month, in retelling the story herself several times, she made very 
little of that part. 

In the twenty-seventh month she took up easily the play at hav- 
ing meals with toy dishes, and it has always been a favored one if 
she has a companion in it. In the twenty-ninth she commented on 
the cows eating grass ; and in the thirtieth played at giving milk to 
a paper cat. In the thirty-first she dictated a letter, and made 
special mention of what she had been eating; and the chief sub- 
stance of a dictated letter of the thirty-fourth month is: "We had 
some biscuits and we had some olives. We did not have any eggs 
before." She dictated a number of letters, however, in which food 
played no part. 

In the last quarter of the third year she showed a good deal of 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child.. 229 

curiosity about the food of animals: was much interested in the 
food of chipmunks, thirty-fourth month; in that of all the animals 
she knew about, and in their foraging for food, told with the pic- 
tures, thirty-fifth month. In the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth 
months (as for years afterj, she was fond of two stories about chip- 
munks, one in which the chipmunk crept into a schoolroom and ate 
the crumbs from the children's lunch, the other in which the chip- 
munks foraged for nuts. She had in the thirty-sixth month some 
imaginary parrots concerning whom she romanced, and their food 
figured largely in the romancing. 

Just at the end of the third year I caught the word hungry for 
the first time, but did not know whether it was used with very clear 
meaning: she excused herself from telling me something I asked 
her about at dinner by saying, " I can't tell you, I 'm so Jmngry now." ^ 



I saw practically no evidence that suggestion was efficient in 
increasing or lessening hunger. If she did not care to eat, it was 
not possible to make her think she did. An exception to this may 
be found in the following: During much of the second year, and 
the whole of the third year (indeed, the habit had begun in the 
first year) she was fond of going to her grandmother's lap to finish 
up a meal ; and it often happened that after a hasty meal in her own 
place, she wotild begin to beg, "Tootyboo go see dear grandma ! " 
run to her grandmother and ask, "Dear grandma, take up Tootyboo !" 
and in her grandmother's lap eat with relish the same things that 
had been rejected in her own seat. 

^Of about 90 words used in the 20th month by Mrs. Beatty's boy, but 
6 were food-names, and no general word for food, eating, or hunger appears. 
Once in this month the child succeeded in conveying the idea that he had taken 
his milk by saying, "Mou'," and pointing to his mouth to show where the con- 
tents of the bottle had gone. 

Mrs. Wood's boy, from the 15th to the i8th month, used the word mummy- 
mummy, at first as a general name for food and drink, afterwards for drink only; 
i. e., milk or water. Heused(?a/at 21 months. Among 263 words recorded 
at 2 years old, only 11 food-names are given. 



230 , University of California. [Vol. i. 



Dietary and Digestion. 



FIRST YEAR. 



No food except mother's milk was taken till the 138th day (20th week); then 
two tablespoonfuls of cream , in two tablespoonfuls of hot water, once a day for 
a few days. 

23d week, the cream and hot water once a day was returned to, as a regular 
addition to mother's milk. 

24th week, changed to top-milk, with hot water, well sweetened. 

25th week, the baby would drink a little ordinary table-milk, unsweetened 
and undiluted, from a glass held to her lips, and coaxed to have it given her in 
a spoon, but evidently for mere amusement in the imitation, not because she 
cared for it as food; she did not swallow much. 

About the same time she was given a bread-crust to suck and mumble, and 
by the end of the 8th month this was a regular thing ; but little nourishment 
could have been obtained from it, as it was not swallowed much. 

31st week, a few spoonfuls of beef soup and cream were given her experi- 
mentally, once ; relished, and digested well, but not added to her dietary, as 
there was no need of it. 

34th week, oatmeal gruel mixed with the milk in her daily supplementary 
meal. 

35th week, a bit of dried beef once or twice given her to suck. 

During the 8th month, the several experiments in other food had been tried 
with a view to supplementing the mother's milk more and more ; during the 
9th, another and then another daily nursing was dropped, as the mother's milk 
became insufficient, and other food substituted, and sometime early in the 
loth month the breast was given up entirely in the daytime. 

gth ino7ith : — My notes are not quite clear, but one meal daily of milk and 
oatmeal gruel, and one of milk, in addition to the breast, seems to have been 
the staple of her food during the 9th month. Bread-crusts were regularly gi\'en 
her to chew ; she now swallowed a good deal, and was fond of them; in the 
37th and 38th weeks, she had pretzel instead, and preferred it. She now and 
then called for the ordinary milk she saw others drink at the table, and drank 
it wiUingly (Jersey milk, once skimmed, — as rich, probably, as most new 
milk, but unsweetened and unwarmed). 

/oth month: — From the beginning of this month, a few spoonfuls of beef- 
soup daily. Crackers were now given her instead of the crusts or pretzels, — 
soda cracker at first, but graham flake from the 41st week, and as she had 
little desire for the milk, or milk and gruel, that made the staple of her food, the 
graham crackers were an important addition to her diet ; she ate a whole one 
with each meal, and would not take her milk without. 

From the 6th month, the baby had been allowed to taste a little fruit-juice 
now and then : in the 9th month, perhaps once or twice a week, — loquat and 
orange fresh from the tree. In the loth month, she was allowed it more fre- 
quently, and in increased quantity, (peach and loquat,) so that it may count as 
an appreciable addition to her diet. 

41st week, a little bread soaked with milk. 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 231 

42d week, oatmeal mush. She had been more and more averse to the oat- 
meal gruel in milk, and as this and milk, which she cared little for, were the 
staple of her food, it was difficult to get her to take nourishment enough, and 
the doctor advised giving the oatmeal in the more solid form. At the same 
time, baked apple was added to her regular food. Toast soaked in milk was 
also tried this week. 

The effect of this more varied and solid diet seemed almost wholly good : 
loss of weight stopped (p. 7, above), appetite revived and food was more 
enjoyed than ever before in the baby's life, and a persistent habit of constipation 
relaxed at once ; the oatmeal, however, did not always digest perfectly. 
Accordingly, 

43d week, a wheat preparation (" germea ") substituted for oatmeal. 

Graham crackers and milk continued a regular part of the baby's food all 
the time. 

nth month : — 44th week, oatmeal mush was given in the morning, and 
another wheat preparation (" wheatina ") in the afternoon, the baby having be- 
come quite averse to the germea. The oatmeal once a day seemed to digest 
well. 

45th week, apple-sauce (stewed) instead of baked apple. Cream was given 
with the apple sauce. 

46th week, tired of graham cracker, and preferred bread and toast crusts 
again. Nursing at night was given up this week, weaning thus being completed. 

47th week, the wheatina given up, as the child became averse to it. She 
cannot be persuaded to eat more than three meals a day: breakfast of oatmeal 
about 7:30 or 8; lunch, of baked apple and cream, graham cracker or bread 
crust, at 12 or 12:30; supper of the same about 5 o'clock, milk with each meal. 
At 6:30, when the family dine, she gets a little more food, — a few spoonfuls of 
soup, a little milk, a crust nibbled at a little, e. g. The nourishment she was 
getting seemed quite insufficient, and her indifference to food was again so 
persistent that, on the doctor's advice, a little minced steak and potato was 
tried, but was not much liked ; the next day, beef broth at noon, which was 
fairly well liked, but the baby had little appetite for it after a few mouthfuls. 

Baked potato and cream was also added to the afternoon meal, and a little 
rice from the soup was tried. A cup of milk at midnight was given, in place of 
the nursing. 

48th week, she was given a bit of steak to suck, with the idea that she 

would simply get the juice ; but she cared only to bite and tear it, and swallowed 

more or less of it. It seemed to do her no harm, but care was taken the next time 

(a few days after) to give her a piece too tough to tear; this annoyed her, and 

♦she would not suck it. 

Throughout this nth month, fruit had been given almost daily to suck, — 
the fruit tied in a thin cloth, through which only the juice could be got. I note 
on one day, in the 45th week, that the juice of four loquats was thus sucked ; 
on another, in the 48th week, that the juice of one peach was taken in the 
course of the day. Watermelon was frequently sucked in this way. In one 
case, she somehow swallowed some of the pulp of an orange, which failed to 
digest. 



232 U7iiversity of California. [Vol. i. 

I have no note of any harm to health or comfort that was ever apparent 
from the occasional passage of food through her stomach thus undigested ; 
not even from the bits of chewed paper, leaves, etc., that now and then, in spite 
of much vigilance, were found to have taken the same course. 

12th month : — 49th week, sweet potato tried, but she would only muss it 
around, and would not eat. The oatmeal was now refused, and wheatina, 
baked pear, soup, cracker, ai)d milk, mademost of her diet. 

50th week, returned to oatmeal mush, with milk, bread, graham crackers, 
and toast. Baked apples eaten somewhat. A bit of steak tried again, and as 
before, she tore and swallowed it ; but as it seemed to agree with her well, and 
as the doctor so advised, she was allowed to go on doing this. As a sample 
of her lunch at this time, I note an inch and a half of steak, about four inches of 
bread, and a little baked apple, with milk. Mush and toast at breakfast, soup 
at night, were continued. 

Fruit-juice was taken as in the previous month, and to this was added in the 
50th week a little apple flesh, scraped fine. 

SECOND YEAR. 

ijth month : — Sweet potato forms a principal part of her diet, and is greatly 
liked ; the 366th day she ate a whole one for lunch. With slight variation, her 
dietary this month is mush and milk toast in the morning ; sweet potato at noon, 
and twice or three times a week a bit of rare broiled steak (perhaps three 
square inches, half or three-quarters of an inch thick) ; soup and sweet potato 
at night, with milk, bread, and crackers at every meal, and often apple sauce or 
baked apple. A light lunch of cracker and milk in the middle of the afternoon, 
and a cup of milk in the night. Fruit almost every day. 375th day, sucked a 
chicken-bone, getting some bits of meat from it. 

This dietary seems to agree with her well, her appetite for the grain foods 
and milk improving when a little meat was added to them. 

i^tk month : — Irish potato and bread, instead of sweet potato and graham 
cracker, neither of which is now liked ; offered graham cracker, she will bite it 
and drop it. Food now largely Irish potato ; a whole one eaten for dinner the 
403d day. With these substitutions, the dietary much the same as in the 13th 
month, viz., milk and potato with all meals, besides mush and toast at break- 
fast, bread at lunch, bread, soup, and occasionally apple-sauce and cracker, 
jelly and butter on bread. Salt now used more, especially on potato, and 
relished extremely. 

Rice is added in the 37th week, and much liked. Celery now first eaten 
(60th week), and passionately desired, a taste that lasted at least imtil the 19th 
month ; but it never formed any considerable part of her food, though she was 
often allowed to eat a little. 

/jth month: — Much the same as foregoing : lives mainly on mush, potato, 
toast, bread, and milk, with baked or stewed apple. Meat three or four times 
a week, at lunch, or rarely at dinner, — steak or chicken. Meat is more eagerly 
desired than any other food. A cooky (plain) now and then given, but forms 
no material part of food. 

j6th month : — Same as above: but graham crackers again important part of 
food. Begs for meat at every meal, but accepts refusal easily. 



Shinn.] 



The Develop7nent of a Child. 233 

ryth month: -S3.mQ, but rice more important part of food. No longer 
clamors for meat except at the time it is regularly given. This month careless 
habit in the family of giving her things to eat irregularly when she asks for them 
oranges, cracker, candy. (Candy first mentioned as given for hiccoughs in 
I ^th month; never much more than tasted till now.) 

.X«.«/A.-Same. In the 76th week, two nights sleepless and crying 
which we credited (though she had a cough) to the eating between meals ; this 

-^T^ ^:^^^^^, (apples and oranges,) always agree- 

^"^;r;;/r:l/A---The general dietary was the same as in the former 
half-year In the 19th month, especially eager for chicken, and would ask for 
mfreat iable. In 'the aoth, graham bread much favored instead of white; a 
toof mutton-chop once at least at lunch. A fit of nausea the next day, without 
a™t cause, was charged to the mutton, and I find no farther note of her 
Wng any, though she asked for it several times in the next month, .ist 
month at^^st indifferent to steak; tired also of potato and rice. Egg tr ed 
for the first time, and liked. .3d month, sweet potato and chicken favored 

"^ during the whole half-year, fruit was a chief article of diet, always agredng 
with her Lcept once in the 8ist week when some one gave her half-ripe loquat , 
Tk ns and all Through the 21st and aad months, fruit was preferred to all 
ote food and potato, bread and rice were cleared away from her plate with 
1 du t?y in order to r;ach peach or berries. Most of the time in .^se wo 
months cared little for any other food, and it was impressed on her as a great 
dry to earbread or potato before asking for fruit. Strawberries, raspberries, 
loquats, peaches, watermelon, chiefly mentioned. 



THIRD YEAR. 



Same staple articles in the main as in the second year A few additions. - 

coansumi ^ , ^f ^nnrse — lieht rollV, summer squash, and fresti 

allowed, not mentioned here, for the record is not ^'^r''^^^'^' rhledhel^ 

most of the second year. ."\^^^J5\m^^^^^ 

neglected for string beans; in ^h^^f ^f ^^^ but roast beef is liked 
in the a7th that fondness f^/^^f^^^^^.i^tts consistently refused for 
as well as ever; m th« /oth, that chicken^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ 

taken all the year, - grapes especially, in 25th month. 



234 University of California. [Vol. i. 

Of articles not staples of diet, I find the following added in the third year : 
25th month, cake, almonds (rarely, — one a day in the latter part of the year), 
and dates ; 26th month, figs ; 28th month, bananas ; 30th, popcorn; 36th, dried 
prunes. 

Digestion seemed in the main perfect throughout the year : just at the 25th 
month, there was a period of languid appetite, accompanied with signs of cold; 
in the last week of the 31st month, early raspberries, though perfectly ripe, 
upset her stomach, and were vomited, undigested, 24 hours after they were 
eaten; in the 33d month, an older child gave her large quantities of cherries 
and loquats, without care as to ripeness, with the result of another fit of indiges- 
tion and vomiting; in the 36th month, there was again a little spell of languid 
appetite, connected with some feverishness and fretfulness, and in the last days 
of the month another digestive upset, apparently from eating figs, though 
these seemed to agree with her as a rule. 

2. Thirst. 

During the first year, when milk formed so large a part of the 
food, I did not especially note the desire for water: pains was 
always taken from the first, however, to see that the baby was 
offered water frequently, and especially when she was restless with- 
out obvious cause. Both the doctor and the grandmother were 
earnest on this point, saying that little babies desired a great deal of 
water, and suffered much discomfort and harm for lack of it before 
they could ask. As soon as the child could ask for water, she 
began to do so, and I noted that at a year old she drank a great deal of 
water, and craved it. From that time on, I noticed that her craving for 
water was remarkable. In the thirty-third month, she would not 
drink milk and invariably asked for water instead, and drank a great 
deal. At meals she would ask for more water over and over, and at 
night always wanted water; one night I noticed that she asked for it 
three times in a half hour, though not feverish. The demands of 
little children, night and day, for water, fairly try the patience of 
those in charge, and it is probable that for health and growth they 
need more water than it is easy for an adult to realize. The evap- 
oration from their skin (Prof. Le Conte suggests to me) is much 
greater than from ours, owing to its soft and porous texture. 

3. Nausea. 

Preyer seems to have found no evidence of the existence of 
nausea in the first three years. My niece showed it distinctly sev- 
eral times. On the few occasions in the earliest months when 



shinn.] Ths Development of a Child, 235 

regurgitation of food occurred, it is true, there was not the least 
sign of nausea. But in the tenth month (299th day) the mother, 
chancing to be where there were some pleasant warm sulphur baths, 
took the baby into them. Shortly after, the baby was taken with 
every appearance of violent nausea, with vomiting, which recurred 
all day. No other instance occurred till the eighty-first week, when 
vomiting was caused by some green fruit, with the skin: nausea 
seemed to accompany this, and the next day when the child was 
asked where she was sick yesterday, she placed her hands at once 
on her stomach, then doubtfully on her chest and around her sides, 
toward her back. Asked a.second time, she placed her hands as 
before, first decidedly on her stomach, then hesitantly backward. 
No one had told her anything about the location of the trouble, 
and she evidently recalled and correctly located either the nausea 
or-the muscular sensation of vomiting. In the eighty-third week 
she was again sick several times; and this time she announced the 
nausea each time before vomiting by running to her mother and 
crying, "Baby sick!" — an unmistakable evidence that she under- 
stood and named the feeling. The next day, asked where she had 
been sick, she said "stomach," and put her hand on the right place. 
Three times in the third year she suffered similar small upsets 
from indiscretions in eating; the second time (thirty-third month) it 
left her droopy and sleepy, an effect that had not been seen before. 
In the last week of the thirty-fifth month, she had a bad fall which 
caused a slight concussion of the brain : she was somewhat nau- 
seated at once, and after an hour became very sick, and vomited, 
then sleepy ; she could not be persuaded to eat, but drank a little 
milk; next day, she would eat only a little toast, and did not wish 
her breakfast, — but these effects were of course due to other 
causes than the simple nausea. 

4. Other Organic Sensations. 

The child repeatedly choked a little in nursing in the first six 
months, and once or twice when she had kicked from her mother's 
hands in the bath and gone under water; but she showed no sign of 
especial fright or discomfort. In the seventy-eighth week, how- 
ever, she choked on a bit of candy; and though she succeeded at 
once in raising it from her throat when told to "spit it out," she 



236 University of California. [Vol. i. 

found the sensation alarming and distressing while it lasted; began 
to cry as soon as she felt it and showed considerable relief when 
it ceased. In the 87th week, choking on a drink, she merely re- 
marked gayly, "Too mu' gi' !" Too much drink.) 

Except in going under the water a few seconds, and in difficult 
breathing from a cold, the sensation of suffocation was never 
experienced that I know: but it is quite possible that some such 
sensation, coming from disturbances of respiration, may cause the 
unaccountable crying of babies, especially on waking from sleep, 
as it has to do with the vague horror experienced in nightmare 
with us. 

The single note I made of organic pain (colic) has already been 
given (Pain, p. 154, footnote). 



GENERAL SENSATION. 
I. Sensations of ^A^ell-being and Discomfort. 

Professor Preyer intimates ^ that in tlie first months the infant 
must experience a larger proportion of unpleasant than of pleasant 
sensation. This does not accord with my observation; and the 
opinion of the best nursery authority I have consulted is emphat- 
ically to the effect that if a healthy baby is not in the main a happy 
one from the first, the care it receives is at fault. But there are 
certainly individual differences between babies, some of whom 
appear, under conditions of general health and comfort, to experience 
a lively felicity, and others a merely neutral feeling. So, too, some 
babies are less troubled than others by actual discomforts, and 
recover from them promptly, instead of seeming for some time after- 
ward affected by disagreeable reverberations.^ 

In the case of my niece the underlying condition of sensation 
seems to have been usually agreeable. It is true that in the first 
week or two, besides some fretting for special reasons (as hunger, 
or slight touches of colic), a vague discomfort, not enough to cause 
fretting, sometimes appeared (see p. i8o, above); while positive 
expressions of comfort were not noted, — her prevailing feeling, to 
judge by her face, being quite neutral. But with the second week, 

" 1 The unpleasant feelings predominate until sleep interrupts them."— 7"-^^ 
Senses and the IVilly p. J 43. 

2 There is room here for interesting speculation on the connection between 
temperament and idiosyncrasies of general sensation. We may surmise, for 
instance, that a happy temperament, heeding discomforts slightly and recover- 
ing from them quickly, is due to a constant undercurrent of agreeable general 
sensation, which modifies disagreeable special sensations, and quickly regains 
dominance in consciousness, obliterating any faint remnants of discomfort; that 
the converse is true in the case of a melancholy temperament; while a temper- 
ament that feels both pleasure and pain strongly and, so to speak, with the 
whole consciousness, is one in which the undercurrent of general sensaUon is 
for some reason unstable, and instead of modifying the force of special 
impressions, is readily deflected into the same course with these, strengthening 
and prolonging them. , 



238 University of California. [Vol. i. 

the grimaces of vague discomfort disappeared, and an expression of 
great contentment became apparent when the baby was warm, dry, 
fed, and wide-awake. It is worthy of note that this expression of 
positive content appeared in close sequence after the habit of staring 
at bright surfaces, as if the material, so to speak, for the diffusion of 
agreeable general sensation began with the action of the special 
senses. From this time on, while there are daily notes of fretting 
for this or that, there are also daily notes of visible contentment and 
well-being. The first true smiles (latter part of the first month) 
were expressions of this general comfort, not of special pleasure; 
and with the second month, happy sounds began to be uttered at 
these times of contentment. Up to the eighth week, there was 
always a good deal of vague movement of limbs and head (see p. 
180, above) at such times. I have noted above the suddenness 
with which in the second month the pleasant mood gave place to 
fretting. 

Activity of attention and interest was heightened at times of 
general well-being, so that it now became hard always to discern 
whether the joy displayed was due to the sense of well-being itself, 
or to pleasure in the objects of attention. Already, in the second 
month, when lying warm, fed, and altogether comfortable, the baby 
took great interest in the faces of those bending over her, and 
smiled at them in much gayety. In the third month her perpetual 
desire to be sitting up interfered with moods of contentment, till it 
was gratified; then she would sit happily, propped with cushions, 
many minutes at a time, playing with a rattle and crowing. In the 
fourth month (especially when propped in her high-chair at table, 
where the lights and the rattling of dishes supplied additional stimu- 
lus) the faces and voices about her made her display the most viva- 
cious delight, with smiles and movements, cooing and crowing. In 
the fifth month pleasure in faces and voices clearly excited expressions 
of joy oftener and more intensely than the mere sense of well-being. 
Yet I find a good many notes, in the fourth and fifth months, of 
similar jubilant behavior when she lay by herself on bed or floor, 
kicking, crowing, smiling, and murmuring, delighted if paid attention 
to, and happy if not. As a rule, some occupation, something to 
handle and look at, was necessary to contentment, — at least a 
rattle to flourish and to put into her mouth : but I have notes of 



Shinn.] The Developme7it of a Child. 239 

two instances at least when she lay in bed, perfectly quiet and 
happy and wide-awake, quite alone and unoccupied, for a long time, 
saying "agoo" peaceably to herself, smiling when I bent over her, 
but content to lie still as she was. This placid contentment, how- 
ever, was now rare, and active jollity more common. 

Throughout the rest of the first half-year my notes record, over 
and over, her moods of "jollity," "perfect content," and "high 
spirits." The 138th day I speak of jollity as the baby's normal 
condition; and such notes recur constantly as, "In highest spirits 
all breakfast time, laughing with glee when any one smiled or spoke 
to her;" "Very happy, smiling about and murmuring;" "Lay look- 
ing at us and uttering contented murmurs;" "Exceedingly jolly, 
smiling, kicking, and sputtering;" "In highest spirits, frequently 
giggling, — if her mother pointed a finger at her and said, 'O 
Ruth ! ' she would giggle." A characteristic of this' condition of 
spirits seemed to be that she was easily "set off" into merriment 
by a word or touch. I noted this first about the end of the fourth 
month, when smiles, or even laughter and joyous movements, could 
be coaxed at almost any time, in these sunny moods, by a few 
caressing words and touches ; and the same thing will be seen in 
the notes below, in later months. 

In these moods, also, the baby was apt to coax for a frolic. The 
connection between general joyousness of mood, and joy in muscu- 
lar activity and in motion (spoken of quite fully above), was close, 
and it^ was not always easy to tell which inspired the other. 

Throughout most of the second half-year, also, my notes read, 
day after day, " Rolls about by the hour on the floor, kicking and 
crowing ; " " Very happy all day, rolling about the floor, kicking 
and prattling ; " " Especially happy most of the day, answering with 
laughter when spoken to." Besides the pure joy in existence that 
seemed to fill her, her pleasure in her own increasing freedom of 
muscular action and sense activity, her delight in motion and frolic, 
seemed to fill her days with an exuberant joyousness. Laughter, 
shouts of joy, overflowing ejaculations of happiness, delight and 
pride, deep and happy interest, are constantly recorded in connec- 
tion with special pleasures, such as the use of her own bodily 
powers, exploring and investigating, the more varied dietary of the 
latter part of the year, the daily reappearance of friends after 



240 University of California. [Vol. i. 

absence, etc. Most of the time, she wanted to play instead of 
sleeping or eating. 

In the last two months of the year, notes of a general joyousness, 
apart from specific pleasures, diminish. The baby's appetite was 
not good in the eleventh month, and her health was not perfect ; 
still, the absence of notes of general joyousness seems to be due not 
so much to any real lowering in the level of her spirits, as to the 
fact that her increasing power of occupying herself was so filling her 
time with special pleasures that her merriment was all credited to 
these. She would play about on the floor with frequent little 
shouts, crows, squeals, and babble of joy; she rejoiced to go from 
one room to another, shouting and calling; her ecstasy when taken 
out driving is described below in connection with the love of out- 
doors. In the twelfth month, as she became still more absorbed in 
her play, there was an increasing seriousness of curiosity and 
attention, and a corresponding decline of gayety. 

In the second and third years mere physical gayety was more 
and more obscured by the increasing complexity of the child's 
occupations and interests; and my notes also, being more and more 
taxed with phases of mental development, fail to keep as close 
record of physical conditions as in the first year. Few months 
pass, however, without notes of the liveliest gayety: the child 
would run about with joyous little cries, prattling, singing, breaking 
into occasional small shouts and capers in sheer exuberance of 
spirits, jumping, racing, tossing her arms, and in every way show- 
ing the utmost physical joyousness. 

Of general moods of depression breaking this level of high 
spirits, I find little mention, apart from evident physical indisposi- 
tion, or from the conditions attending sleep (see below, pp. 261, 279). 
The first instance I find is on the 57th day, when the baby was 
very silent, looking soberly about, and fretting to be held sitting. 
An episode of apparently causeless discontent in the fifth month 
(137th and 138th days) proved to be due to insufficient nourishment 
(p. 217). Once in the sixth month (173d day) I find the note, 
"Well and happy, though not in overflowing spirits, as some 
preceding days; only quietly pleased at frolics, and did not want 
to be laid down to kick." For about four days in the latter part of 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 24 1 

the eighth month, she was sober, and did not roll and rollick as 
much as usual; she laughed and played a good deal, but the 
perfect joyousness was tempered. One of these days was cold and 
drizzly, and she was kept in the house, which grew close ; at last I 
wrapped her up and took her out, and she came back with all 
depression dissipated. Half a dozen instances of more decided 
general discomfort are noted (fifth to eleventh monthsj: for several 
hours she would be restless, fretful, ready to cry on slight occasion 
and would demand attention and diversion constantly. These 
instances all occurred within the first period of dentition, (which 
was also that of gradual weaning,) and in at least two cases the 
connection with dentition was evident: once, in the sixth month, 
the baby had been restless and fretful on two successive afternoons, 
and by evening had cried hard unless constantly diverted, but from 
the hour the tooth (the first one) came through she was happy 
and smiling ; and again in the ninth month there was an immediate 
return of good spirits after the appearance of a tooth. In neither 
case had there been any evidence of local pain before the cutting of 
the tooth, but rather of a general discomfort. It is likely that there 
really was local pain, not localized by the baby; even grown people 
find it hard sometimes to locate a dull pain: but the general 
disorders that sometimes attend teething, show that there may 
easily be very diffused states of uncomfortable sensation at this 
time. The few remaining instances of fretfulness preceded the 
appearance of teeth by sufficient intervals to be referred to early 
stages of their growth: it is an old doctrine that there are two 
periods in the growth of each tooth when it causes distress, the 
first when it starts to push up from the bone, the second when 
it is about to break through the skin. Still, most of the teeth 
appeared without any disturbance of the baby's spirits that was 
marked enough to get into my notes. 

In the second and third years, also, I find only four times a note 
that the child is fretful and exigeant, contrary, or easily grieved, 
when she seems perfectly well; and on two of these occasions 
a failure of appetite indicates the connection of the mood with 
obscure physical derangements. Beyond this, "bad days," "getting 
up wrong side of the bed," etc., do not occur. There were long 
iTiriods (to be spoken of presently) of a perceptible lowering in the 



242 Univej'sity of California, [Vol. i. 

level of spirits, without falling below that of cheerfulness and a 
general habit of enjoyment. Other variations of mood had a clear 
relation to physical disorder, — in a few cases, to slight digestive 
disturbance, but oftenest, as in the first year, to dentition. The 
cutting of a tooth was apt to be preceded (though not always) 
by perhaps a half-day of fretfulness and general sensitiveness, — 
which in two cases disappeared, just as I had twice noticed in 
the first year, immediately on the appearance of the tooth, and 
was followed by a mood of positive joyousness. One of these 
instances was in the eighteenth month: the child was in the 
morning unusually exigeant, and in the afternoon fretful, especially 
as it was drizzly and she could not go outdoors; she begged 
hard and persistently to go, and could not easily be diverted. 
Thinking to interest her, I showed her her crib and chair, moved 
out on the veranda in the process of house-cleaning: instead of 
being pleased at the novelty, however, she was greatly distressed 
over the exile of her belongings, and was only kept from wailing 
over the dismembered crib by seeing her chair, at least, rescued 
from the miscellany of furniture and brought to her. After dinner 
her mood changed suddenly: she was jolly and happy, ran about 
in great spirits, uttering many inarticulate exclamations of happi- 
ness, and asking no attention, and took lively and pleasant interest 
in the re-laying of carpet and replacing of furniture, rejoicing 
especially over her crib. It proved that a tooth, a molar, had 
come through the skin late in the day. Again, in the nineteenth 
month, she had for a day or two showed some crossness, but 
immediately after the appearance of an eye-tooth had a fit of the 
highest spirits, running about with joyous little cries, capering, 
shouting, scrambling on the lounge and off, in irrepressible glee, 
which remained her general mood for at least four days. In a 
third case (nineteenth month) the cutting of a tooth was followed 
on the 7text day by a fit of wild spirits. The child had a good 
many colds in the two years; but I find only four instances in 
which peevishness or languor is associated with one, and a dozen 
in which her excellent spirits, in spite of a severe cold, are men- 
tioned. Thus in the latter part of the twenty-fifth month, she had 
a tenacious cold, which did not affect her spirits appreciably for 
some days; then, having one day a little more cold, she became 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 243 

very irritable, and whimpered because her dress sleeves did not 
come down as far as her shirt sleeves ; because her hair was brushed 
back ; because her mother instead of aunty put her bib on ; etc. 
The next day, though the cold continued and she had no appetite, 
she was sunny and happy all day; nor was there any recurrence of 
the peevishness in several days more that the cold lasted, though 
she visibly suffered, in color and appetite, from its long continuance. 
In the twenty-eighth month, during the severest cold and cough 
she had in the three years, I note one day that she is not seriously 
affected in spirits; the next that she is in lively spirits, singing and 
prattling about her play; the next that she was ill-behaved at 
dinner, and cried when reproved, and this was the night of the fit 
of unreasonable crying described below (Sleep, p. 289). 

There were, of course, continual special grievances to interrupt 
the high level of happiness. In the first year there were bumps 
and falls, deprivations, the great standing affliction of being dressed, 
etc. But these troubles were few in number compared to the 
pleasures; and it is quite striking to see with what ease the baby 
recovered from uncomfortable feeling. In the first five months, 
though she took pleasure in objects to see and to hold, she showed 
no grief at their withdrawal, and her mother would unceremoniously 
take a thing from her hand and lay it aside in a way that would 
liave brought an inconsolable wail from some babies; but this one 
would merely look surprised or troubled for a moment, then reach 
for something else. In the twenty-third week, for the first time, she 
nearly cried several times at having things taken from her, or being 
interfered with while she was playing with them ; and in the next 
week she was bitterly grieved at such an incident, and cried till her 
eyes Vv^ere red : these were the sole instances in the first six months, 
so far as my notes show. In the next half-year I find three or four 
instances every month of crying, sometimes bitterly, over disappoint- 
ment, or withdrawal of something enjoyed. The first week of the 
ninth month I have a general note that she usually cries for a few 
seconds — till diverted — when anything is taken away that she 
specially likes. As a rule, she gave things up easily, and turned 
lier attention to something else. E. g., in the eleventh month (3 1 5th 
day) I had the camphor beside me on the lawn for instant applica- 
tion when mosquitoes attacked her, and she was very desirous of 
17 



244 University of Cali/orjiia. [Vol. r. 

the bottle, and crawled round and round me after it; I was busy 
with writing, but kept an eye on it, and removed it from under her 
grasp just as she reached it, again and again, — which she seemed 
to regard as a play, and took in perfect good nature. When she 
was hurt, bumped, or startled, she recovered her composure very 
soon. In the ninth month, her locomotion having now proceeded 
far enough to cost her constant bumps, she would as a rule look 
surprised and sober for a few seconds, then forget the matter; a few 
times, there was lusty crying. In the tenth month she paid no 
attention to slight bumps, but cried vigorously over hard ones. In 
the twelfth she hardly passed a day without a bump, and sometimes 
cried hard over one, but was easily diverted. 

She suffered scarcely at all from timidity. With strangers she 
was as a rule happy and sociable, and ready to respond with great 
gayety to advances toward a frolic. In the ninth and tenth months 
she suffered a little from timidity toward strangers, and she had a 
few frights from severe falls and other causes; but on the whole her 
absence of fear, either of persons or things, was noticeable. She 
was not easily startled, and novel sights or sounds excited a pleasant 
interest instead of fear. 

Throughout the second and third years the increase in number 
and force of desires increased not only .the child's pleasures, but also 
her disappointments. There was also an increase of self-will, and 
in the third year, especially the latter part of it, there was much 
disposition to resist constraint. There was therefore less easy sur- 
render of her wishes, and notes occur from time to time of crying 
over refusals or deprivations; hurts too were sometimes loudly 
lamented. But in the main it continued true that the child threw 
off disagreeable feeling readily and took nothing very hard ; accepted 
denial reasonably; would let a thing be taken forcibly from her 
hand with little protest, and was easily diverted. She was always 
patient and cheerful in waiting for a promised pleasure, dwelling on 
the pleasant prospect, not the delay. "Ruth has had one peach," 
she would be told, "and must not have anymore now; another 
day." — "Yes: Ruth have peach another day," the child would 
answer contentedly, and trot off to her play (twenty-second month). 
The day after her severe fall and concussion of the brain, she 
seemed bright and natural, only a little sober, and was unexpectedly 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 245 

little troubled by her bruises (though tired toward evening, clinging 
to her mother and crying) ; and by the second day the bruised lip 
was recovering with surprising rapidity, and her spirits were excel- 
lent. No nervous effects were ever visible from the accident. 
Anger and fear (though, especially in the second year, there were 
some episodes of timidity with people) troubled her very little; 
and specific pleasures far outnumbered specific grievances at all 
times. 

A mood more common than depression or iritability was one of 
rough boisterousness. This I noted but once in the first year, in 
the twenty-eighth week, when the baby took up a sort of riotous 
behavior and became very noisy, with loud, hoarse shouting, and 
rough laughing, " haw-haw," — which at first I took for an ex- 
pression of discontent, but which proved after a day or two to be 
good-natured. One evening in this week she sat on the table just 
before bedtime, shouting, ho-hoing, and reaching with snatches in 
every direction, as if she could not keep still, — spilling over with 
riotous excitement, till her gentle grandmother said, " Why, you 
little rowdy !" In the next week this noisy behavior disappeared, 
giving place to a more tempered, yet more joyous merriment. The 
first instance of a similar wild mood that I record in the second 
year is at nineteen months, when the child was one evening in 
boiling-over spirits, especially disposed to do forbidden things, — 
twitching the table-cloth, e. g., to the risk of lamp and dishes ; she 
would dive with an air of triumphant mischief at her grandmother's 
glasses and cap, and jerk them off before a hand could be quick 
enough to stop her. Some roguishness often at this time — twenti- 
eth month — entered into her fits of wild merriment, usually showed 
by running laughingly away from us, but sometimes by seizing at 
our hair (see Muscular Sensation, p. 190). In the twenty- first 
month she tried repeatedly to see how far she could go safely in 
roguish naughtiness, — shouting and squealing at the table, throwing 
her hat out of the buggy, e. g: In one fit of wild spirits, at twenty- 
one months, she scrambled defiantly on the table at the close of a 
meal, and seized on the salts; scampered about laughing, impatient 
if held still a moment ; and refused to kiss any of us good-night, 
laughing and romping instead. I note over and over in the third 



246 University of California. [Vol. i. 

year that her naughtinesses are almost entirely pure overflows of 
rowdyish spirits, — such as throwing her plate across the table, 
(twenty-fifth month,) banging the furniture with sticks, gayly assault- 
ing us or the cat. In the thirtieth month I note that much of the 
time the child seems unable to contain her animal spirits, running 
over with desire of noise and motion, yet does not laugh a great 
deal, and is rather noisy than merry. In the thirty-third month, 
the mood seemed still more clearly differentiated from real merri- 
ment: there was a boisterous, spilling-over air about her, that kept 
her kicking this, putting her foot on that, in a naughty way, — not 
investigating, but a stupid and aimless expenditure of nerve surplus, 
which seemed to unfit her for occupation, rather than to show a 
craving for it as an outlet; when in such a mood she would not be 
held to any occupation, but was restless and wilful. She had a 
habit at the time of moving a leg about or teetering on her feet 
almost constantly, without any reason that I could find. It seemed 
nervous and not normal; and I have seen the habit in an exceedingly 
nervous grown person; but the child seemed in perfectly healthy 
condition. 

In the rough gayety there was little natural and joyous laugh- 
ter: indeed, in the thirty-third and thirty-fourth months I noticed 
the infrequency of genuine laughter, and wondered if it was because 
the child's association was so entirely with grown people; she 
seemed to wish to laugh, and to try to work herself up to it, but it 
was forced. In the latter part of the thirty-fifth month I speak of 
the return of a habit of joyous laughter. 

From what sources, physical or psychical, these moods came, I 
found it impossible to guess: they seemed to be essentially a part 
of the child's temperament, and in a modified form, they persist as 
she grows older. Although it was not possible always to draw the 
line between the outbreaks of boisterousness and those of pure 
merriment, — for they shaded into each other, — they were never- 
theless different things; and I have seen no reason to think that 
there is any gain to the joyousness of childhood from indulging 
the boisterous tendency, (often seen in untrained boys,) nor should 
it be confused with genuine high spirits and romping glee. 

Up to the 56th day, so far as my notes show, the general mood 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 247 

of the baby was the same from day to day, (and apparently of a 
neutral character,) brief fluctuations occurring within the day. On 
the 56th day I find the first mention of a mood as characterizing- 
the whole day: the baby is on this date recorded as singularly 
bright and sunny "all day long," smiling at every one; the next 
day was a sober one; and after this I find over and over notes 
of moods that lasted all day, or day after day. In the second 
and third years I find sometimes noted mere ebullitions of gayety, 
lasting perhaps an hour or two; sometimes that the child was 
spilling over with jollity and activity "all day;" and sometimes for 
weeks at a time her uniform physical well-being and overflowing 
spirits, her racing, capering, squealing, all day long and day after 
day, are remarked on; or perhaps like periods of soberer mood.. 
In analyzing these notes, it becomes evident that there were long 
waves of variation in mood, within which occurred the shorter 
waves, those of a few hours or a few days, which were usually quite 
clearly referable to physical condition. The longer waves were 
more obscure in their origin, and more imperfectly noted; and I 
have tried in vain to find any consistent process of development 
underlying them. The following periods seem fairly clear in my 
record: — 

In the first three months of the second year the child's pre- 
vailing mood seems to have been rather of serious happiness 
than of gayety, her increasing powers of locomotion and under- 
standing opening up mental interests that waked all her curiosity 
and absorbed all her attention. There was more of mere merriment 
in the sixteenth month, but somewhere about the beginning of the 
seventeenth a vague decline in spirits was perceived, — a loss of the 
expression of bright and winning interest from her face, and of the 
habit of frequent smiles and laughter; the expression of her face 
became prevailingly dull. This phase may have had something to 
do with dentition, but it was in the eighteenth and nineteenth 
months, not the seventeenth and eighteenth, that' dentition was 
proceeding most rapidly. A phase of most marked and demonstra- 
tive joyousness began about the last week of the twentieth month, 
and may mark the close ot a period of dentition ; or complete recov- 
ery from colds with the settled warm weather (June); or a stage of 
especially vigorous circulation, due to the development of the powers 



248 University of California. [Vol i. 

of movement; or less obvious causes. Her even nerves, perfect 
physical condition, and freedom from timidity, are expressly noticed 
at this time. 

With the last week of the month, and until near the end of the 
twenty-second, appears a condition of being "not quite in her 
usual spirits," • — ^not fretful, but less busy and satisfied; she seemed 
often bored for want of occupation, restless, desiring occupation, 
but unable to invent much. I was disposed to attribute this 
mood, which recurred in the twenty-fifth, thirtieth, and thirty-third 
months, to psychic causes, thinking the time had come when her 
spontaneous activities were not enough, and she needed more 
guidance in her play, — that the occupations of her own devising 
were too simple and monotonous, and she desired more interesting 
ones, supplied by us. But in the intervals between these phases of 
restlessness I find, on the other hand, notes of increasing ability and 
disposition to occupy herself. It is evident that it was a complex 
matter, in which increasing mental demands and increasing power 
of self-occupation kept pace but irregularly; and general physical 
mood came in as a factor, for when the child was in a state of high 
well-being, interest was easily roused by slight things that in other 
moods did not suffice. Another form of this same variation in 
mood as indicated by interest, was that at times the child was more 
fickle and inconsecutive in occupation than at other times, no one 
thing having power to interest her long. After this mood in the 
twenty-second month, with gradually increasing gayety through 
the twenty-third, the twenty-fourth seems to have been a month of 
exuberant happiness. 

In the third year, there was a good deal of alternation, periods 
of restlessness and dependence in attention alternating with others 
of advancing power of self-occupation, and periods of boisterous- 
ness with others of real merriment, lasting from a few days to 
two or three weeks; but my notes do not define these periods 
with much clearness, nor give clue to their causes. The twenty- 
seventh month, however, was one of lively gayety, while from 
the thirtieth there was a vague diminution of spirits and increase 
of the rather joyless boisterousness above described. During 
much of the thirty-fourth month, the child seemed quieter, did 
not jump or shout much, said it made her tired to run, was 



Shinn.] The Developmejit of a Child. 249 

willing to sit in our laps, or even sought them, though she seemed 
perfectly well. Before the end of the thirty-fifth month the bright 
and spontaneous gayety reappeared, and so to the end of the 
year. Whimsical, noisy, and rather rowdy fits still occurred, — 
freakish ebullitions at table, e. £-., — but on the whole the child was 
charmingly pleasant, gentle, and joyous in these closing weeks of 
the year.^ 

Some other peculiar states, apparently due to a more than 
normal intensifying of pleasurable general sensation (besides the 
psychic elements) are mentioned below (p. 258) in connection with 
their effect on sleep. Notice especially the physical effect pervading 
the baby's whole body after her excitement over callers, — mak- 
ing her alert throughout, wanting to jump and dance. Other 
peculiar states attending the approach and disappearance of sleep, 
are described below also. 

From the first, the bath (34° C.) seemed to have a marked 
effect in producing a heightened sense of general comfort, and 
caused an expression of great satisfaction, even in the earliest 
days; muscular activity, and also the tension, or tone, of the mus- 
cles, was at the same time increased. These effects were doubtless 
due to more rapid and well-distributed circulation. In the fourth 
week, when in the bath, the baby would open her eyes very wide, 
and hold up her head more stiffly than at other times, while the 
asymmetry of her eye movements and the aimless waving of hands 
and arms increased. In the second and third months, she propped 
herself strongly with her knees and pushed with her feet in the bath. 
Asymmetric eye movements continued there (fifteenth week) after 
they had disappeared under all other circumstances. The baby did 
not smile nor utter sounds in the bath, but had an air of almost 
eager, though quiet pleasure, — eyes stretched wide open, rapid 
breathing, head held up, feet pushing (second month); in the sixth 
month (the bath now about 32° C.) she still enjoyed it without 
hilarity, but with much quiet pleasure; in the seventh she began to 
show hilarity in the bath, splashing with her arms; in the eleventh 
she would stiffen in resistance to being taken out. It was at all 

^See a rougher analysis of these phases, which passes over some of the 
briefer alternations, on pp. 89, 90. 



250 University of California. [Vol. i. 

times, and remains at seven years old, with I think not a single 
exception in her life, a most exhilarating pleasure; was invariably- 
desired (with the single exception that she once in the nineteenth 
month cried and resisted at being brought in from outdoors for her 
bath), and reluctantly quitted. In the twenty-fifth month she once 
urged her wish to stay in forever: "Ruth won't go come out any- 
more!" Throughout the second and third years, she prattled and 
played in the bath, with shouts, squeals, and joyous inarticulate 
sounds. 

The effect of undressing and rubbing with oil, a daily practice 
in the early months, I have spoken of above (p. 182); and also 
have mentioned that this rubbing sometimes changed the baby's 
whole mood, — as on the 88th day, when she had been fretful all 
the afternoon, but became happy and smiling after being undressed 
and rubbed; so again the 177th day. 

The child was much in the open air, and most of the time from 
the fifth to the tenth month the weather was most favorable. She 
did not in the first six months appear especially affected in general 
sensation by the outdoor air. The first time she was taken out- 
doors, in our arms, 29th day, she showed no especial pleasure; and 
though from the next time, 38th day, she did show deep pleasure 
when taken out, this seems to have been due in the first place to 
the motion of the baby-carriage. Late in the seventh month (202d 
day) her grandmother took her outdoors (bareheaded for the first 
time) and sat quietly down on the veranda with her saying she 
wished her to learn to love the outdoor air and sunshine, the trees, 
and flowers, and birds, without needing the baby-carriage and its 
motion. The baby seemed for the first time taken possession of by 
that joy in outdoors that afterward was so strong. She sat in her 
grandmother's lap with murmurs of delight; and thereafter her joy 
in lying on a blanket and rolling freely about was greatly enhanced 
if the blanket were laid on veranda or lawn. Within two weeks, 
she would coax to be taken outdoors, and then coax till she was 
put down out of arms and left to the enjoyment of her own perfect 
bliss. In the following months my notes run: " Great joy in play- 
ing on a quilt on the lawn, — sat laughing and ejaculating with 
pleasure;" "Extreme joy in being allowed to sit and crawl on the 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 251 

lawn, — incessant cries of joy and laughter as she looked about, at 
the trees, etc., up, down, and around, — happiness overflowing for 
some hour and a half, till she was taken away." By the eleventh 
month, to go outdoors was the great joy of her life, coaxed for 
daily, and hailed with crows, prattle, laughter, and movements of 
the body; in driving, the baby would nestle to one with murmurs 
of joy, utter small shouts and joyous syllables, lean to look about, 
clap or wave her hands, smile and look up in our faces. 

Throughout the second and third years even more than in the 
first, to be outdoors was the great condition of buoyant states of 
feeling. Her desire to go out, her grief in refusal, her exceeding 
joy in going, her happiness outdoors, her reluctance to come in,, 
are the subject of endless notes. Much of her emotional expression 
was developed in connection with this most intense and constant of 
her desires and joys. In the thirteenth and fourteenth months, e.g., 
she would coax all day to go out, going to the window and pointing 
out, to the door and prying at the edge, to the chest where her 
bonnet was kept and tugging at the lid, to us and begging with all 
her arts; when asked if she wished to go, she would nod and give 
cries of assent, breaking into joyous laughter, and when she saw 
movements toward getting her wraps or opening the door, the 
laughter, springing, and cries would increase; when brought in, she 
would cry and beg tragically, " Go ! go! go!" (eighteenth month). 
In the periods of dullest spirits, it M^as scarcely ever that she was 
not happy and able to occupy herself outdoors; while in the hap- 
piest period she was occasionally a little fretful if kept indoors. 
The ebullitions of intensest joy and activity were when running 
about outdoors: e. g., 627th day, as she played on the lawn, it did 
not seem possible for her to get expression enough for her spirits, — 
she ran, whirled around, shook herself, squealed, laughed, and raced 
vigorously this way and that. 

In this enormous effect on the spirits, the greater abundance 
and novelty of objects of interest did not (apart from the dog and 
other animals) seem to have much part, for she did not seek their 
resources much : she sometimes explored, but most of the time her 
outdoor occupations were simpler than indoor ones, and no more 
novel, — she sometimes trotted about by the hour, purposelessly 
enough; she often picked flowers; she dug in the ground a great 



:2 52 University of California. [Vol. i. 

■deal; sometimes she simply ran along the garden walks, tossing 
her arms and exulting. She repeatedly begged to leave a novel 
house, full of objects of interest, to " walk outdoors," though there 
was no more than a board walk and a few weeds and grasses there 
to interest her. Even in the first year, I did not think that the 
novel sights and sounds had much to do with her outdoor joy, for 
a large collection of interesting things to see and hear, in a room, 
never produced the same sort of unconcentrated, incurious joyous- 
ness. Nor could the wider spaces have affected her much in the 
first year, since distant seeing was not yet acquired (see Sight, 
p. 20). At this time, I thought that the mere physical effect of the 
fresh air, together with the brighter light, and perhaps the moving 
and playing of the lights in the leaves, must make up the main part 
of the pleasure. In the second and third years, the freedom from 
walls and bounds, the larger visible spaces, the brighter colors, the 
movement and rustlings in the trees, the outdoor sounds, seem to 
have made up a joyous medley of sense-impression that overflowed 
in a highly diffused exhilaration. The condition seems akin to the 
joy of birds; and there seems no reason to doubt that it is an early 
stage of true "love of nature." The love of outdoor freedom is 
strongly hereditary in this child's case: her remoter ancestry, as I 
have mentioned, (p. 5) was mainly of seafaring or farming folk; and 
no other trait is common to so many of her kindred in the gen- 
eration or two before her. Whether it is any more marked in her 
than in other children, however, I do not know: nothing is a more 
invariable observation in every nursery than the passion for out- 
doors. 

2. Sleep, and Attendant States of Sensation. 

[For purposes of intelligible record it is impossible to separate 
the subjects named above, although it is evident that Sleep, a 
physiological condition, lies quite outside the subject of Sensation. 
It is attended, both in coming on and in passing away, by char- 
acteristic states of general sensation, and also by one distinct 
sensation, — that of sleepiness, — recognized in consciousness as 
unlike any other, and somewhat localized, being referred vaguely 
to the head, and especially to the eyes. 

Something must be said, also, as to the classification of Fatigue, 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 253 

which Preyer makes a separate head, under Organic Sensations. 
The word fatigue is used of several feehngs, which fall in quite 
different categories of sensation. Muscular fatigue is a distinct 
sensation, easily localized when the activity that produced it has 
been local. It is plainly a correlative of muscular activity, and I 
have already entered my notes concerning it under the head of Mus- 
cular Sensation. There are also the somewhat complex feelings 
of fatigue, dermal, muscular, organic, and vascular, which I have 
placed above under the head of Sensations of Position, though they 
might perhaps be held to belong to general sensation. There are 
also states of completely diffused sensation originating in excess of 
nervous action, usually of the special senses, with some accompany- 
ing cerebral excitement; and these I class in the present chapter, 
the more as their relation to sleep was especially noticeable. Unlike 
the others, they are not always, or usually, feelings of lassitude, but 
rather of increased excitability, and the word fatigue would not 
be used in naming them unless the excitability had passed on 
into the irritable condition that we recognize when we say we are 
"nervously tired." Fatigue may be, again, purely cerebral, as 
when the attention is wearied, and in this case there is no sensation 
at all. In scientific discussion the physiological condition that 
causes all these feelings is almost always meant when the word is 
used, not the feelings themselves. 

The word being used thus comprehensively, and the condition 
of fatigue being one that attends (with or without resulting sensa- 
tion) all activity, I have made no separate category of it, but have 
distributed my notes of the different types of fatigue according to 
what seemed their simplest relation in the actual occurrence of the 
incidents.] 

The duration of sleep in the early months was quite different 
in the case of my niece and in that of Preyer's child. Instead of 
beginning with short periods of sleep, 2 hours in the first month, 
and gradually increasing up to 6 or 8 hours in the sixth month, 
my niece had her long periods of unbroken sleep in the first two 
months, and shorter ones afterward. From the first week, she 

1 This does not ignore the fact that, as several psychologists have shown, 
there is also a faint diffusion of fatigue through the body after local activity. 



2 54 University of California. [Vol. r, 

often slept 6 hours at a stretch, and 7 hours was not unusual in the 
second month; once (58th day) she slept 8 hours continuously; and 
at two months old (63d day) she once slept 9^4^ hours/ After the 
first two months, I found it impossible to keep close account of the 
duration of sleep; but the general indication of my notes is that 
the periods grew shorter, as habit established itself in the nursing. 
Until the second quarter-year the baby slept a good deal of the 
daytime, in several naps; but now the daytime sleeps decreased, 
and two naps of an hour and a half each, morning and afternoon, 
(with, in the fourth month, one or two brief dozes besides,) became 
the rule until near the end of the first year. At night she slept 
about II hours, broken by two intervals of nursing. Now and 
then a nap in the daytime extended to 2)^ or 3 hours, and now and 
then she refused one nap altogether. Not infrequently she slept 
past the midnight nursing, making seven or eight hours of unbroken 
sleep; once, in the twelfth month, although she waked for milk at 
midnight, she slept until 9 A. M., three hours past her usual time 
of waking. 

By the end of the first year it became difficult to coax two naps 
in the daytime, and in the thirteenth month one became the rule. 
Even when she seemed very sleepy, it would prove impossible 
actually to get her to sleep. The naps seem to have become 
shorter and lighter, also, though my notes are insufficient on this 
point; I have one note (nineteenth month) of a nap of four hours 
There were a good many days when the baby refused to sleep at 
all; I find one note of four days in succession without a daytime 
nap (twenty-first month). 

In the third year, the daytime nap grew harder and harder to- 

^ The first of these long sleeps (37th day) illustrated the decrease of depth 
of sleep in its latter hours. She fell asleep at 5 p. m,, though it was then 
nursing-time, and slept deeply till 9 o'clock. On later occasions of prolonged 
sleep the mother, finding that no harm came from postponement of nourish- 
ment, let the baby sleep as long as she would; but this first time she waked her 
when the interval since nursing had reached six hours. The baby nursed and 
dropped at once into deep sleep again, and slept till midnight, when she was 
again fed (my note does not say whether she waked voluntarily) and dropped 
again to sleep; but though earlier in the night she had slept so soundly that 
hunger could not wake her even at three times the ordinary interval since she 
had been fed, she now, though fed and comfortable, slept lightly, and waked 
three or four times before morning. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 255 

induce, and more irregular; at this time, too, her mother was 
obliged to be often absent from her, which increased the difficulty; 
and after the twenty-sixth month, the regular nap was given up. 
She not infrequently fell asleep, however, when driving, or travel- 
ing on the cars, and several times when ailing took short naps. 
Meanwhile, in both the second and third years, the sleep at night 
was usually about 10 hours (8 p. m. to 6 a. m.), sometimes broken 
once or twice. In a few cases in the third year this was prolonged 
to II, and once (twenty-seventh month) to 13 hours. 

Opportunities to observe the effect of peripheral stimulus during 
.^leep were small. As far as sounds were concerned, the sensibility 
was slight in the early weeks, and it was not till the last week of the 
fourth month that voices and movements about the baby were apt 
to make her restless in sleep. The rustling of paper, however, 
(the nurse told me,) repeatedly made her start and cry as early as 
the 3d or 4th day, both when asleep and when awake; and on the 
6th day I heard her cry out in her sleep at the sharp tearing of 
paper. I noted once in the twelfth month (243d day) that she 
waked every time her father rustled a paper. 

In the following months her grandmother thought her rather 
easy to waken, as compared with other babies: still, she was not 
wakened in the evening by the talking and reading aloud that 
regularly took place in an adjoining room, separated by a portiere 
only from the one in which she slept; and several times she slept on 
the cars without being perceptibly disturbed by the stopping and 
starting at stations, the coming and going of people, nor even the 
brakeman's calling of stations and slamming of doors, unless she 
were near the end of the car.^ Like most babies she could be lifted, 
carried, and laid down, without waking, if it was carefully done: her 
sleep in these earliest years, however, never approached the insensi- 

^ Whether in response to sensations, as weariness of one position, weight of 
iDedclothes, etc., or from central causes, she has since the second year (like 
most children) shown a great deal of muscular activity in sleep. In the last 
week of the second year, I slept with her, and noticed the remarkable restless- 
ness with which she rolled about in all imaginable positions, e. g., across my 
breast and neck, or with her face lying on my ear, etc. All this was habitual, 
her mother assured me. When she slept beside me in the third year, it was 
aaot quite so marked. 



256 University of California. [Vol. i. 

bility to external stimulus that characterizes it now, at seven years 
old, when the child can be taken out of one bed and tumbled into 
another quite heedlessly without disturbing her, and has to be 
spoken to over and over and handled rather roughly if it is necessary 
to rouse her out of a deep sleep. By the middle of the third year, 
(and ever since,) flea and mosquito bites disturbed sleep badly (see 
Dermal Sensations, p. 150). 

In light drowsing the condition of sensibility was quite differ- 
ent. Once in the eleventh month (309th day) I note that though 
sleepy she could not get to sleep on the cars, rousing at each 
station from the doze into which she was sinking, disturbed by 
the change of motion. If she went to sleep in one's arms it 
was necessary to wait till sleep became deep before laying her 
down. There may have been in light half-sleep an even heightened 
sensibility to the changes of motion, as there was to sound 
in the incident of her being startled at the rattling of the tin 
bath-tub handles on the 37th day (see Hearing, p. 108); she was 
never thus startled by any sound when awake. For discriininati7i^ 
sensibility, her senses were doubtless dulled in this condition of 
half-sleep, as older people's are. Thus in the last week of the 
second year she came into her mother's bed before light, and half- 
asleep, rolled over to me as I occupied her mother's usual place, . 
and though she touched my face and hair with her hands, did not 
discover till daylight that it was not her mother. See also instances 
below of clearness or confusion of senses just after waking. Refer- 
ences will be noticed below, in other connections, to her apparent, 
consciousness sometimes, even when half asleep, of our move- 
ment, — clinging tighter, e. g., if I moved, when she had gone to 
sleep clinging to me, — automatic probably, under continuance of 
the suggestion given by her waking fear that I would leave her. 

Organic sensations — or conditions — affected the durationr 
and depth of sleep considerably, as well as the ease with which it 
came on. The satisfaction of hunger favored sleep, and it was 
a daily practice to go to sleep at the breast: yet, as has been 
mentioned above (Hunger, p. 215) hunger did not always suf- 
fice to prevent sleep, nor to break it. Sleep was apt to be 
deeper and longer in the open air, and when the weather per- 



Shinn.] The Developme7it of a Child. 257 

mitted the baby often had her naps outdoors. She was far more 
easily put to sleep in the open air all through the first and second 
years ; as this was always in her baby-carriage or on a drive, the 
motion may have been the chief reason, but pushing her about in 
the baby-carriage inside the house did not have the same effect. 
At the end of the ninth month (271st day) she slept peacefully an 
hour and a half on the deck of a yacht, amid the talk and laughter 
of a large party and the noises of the rigging, but when below, 
roused at any noise. There seemed also to be after-effect on her 
sleep from fresh air : after returning from a drive or being outdoors 
a long time, she would sleep more readily and soundly. On the 
141st day she fretted and cried unusually over going to sleep, with- 
out any cause that I could conjecture except that she had missed 
her daily outing. 

Difficulty in breathing, from a cold, waked her over and over 
(three or four days in the last week of the eighth month) even when 
she was tired and sleepy. 

I find but the slightest indication of disturbance of sleep from 
digestive conditions, or general derangements connected with teeth- 
ing, — once in the sixth month, two or three fretful days, with 
unusual difficulty in going to sleep, while she had a cold, and two 
teeth nearly through ; in the tenth month, several nights of broken 
sleep, with bad appetite in the daytime, which may have been due 
to teething, or to diet ; and a short period in the eighteenth month 
(p. 233, above) when disturbance of sleep seemed due to a habit of 
eating between meals, and ceased as soon as the practice was 
stopped. For sleepiness after nausea, see p. 235, above. 

I gave a good deal of attention to the after-effect upon sleep of 
the activities of the day. I never could see that muscular activity, 
however considerable, produced any effect on sleep. Neither did 
mental exertion, if unaccompanied by excitement. A day of the 
most eager and interested investigation of objects, e. g., so long as 
it was quite self-inspired, never seemed to leave any sort of nervous 
disturbance behind, nor to have to be made up for by increased 
sleep. The effect of social excitement, or rapidly changing mental 
occupation (more rapidly than the natural Hmits of her attention 
called for) was quite different, and very noticeable. Here appeared 



258 University of California. [Vol. i. 

the effects of nervous over-activity referred to above (p. 253). The 
first instance was at the beginning of the second month, when callers 
came in to congratulate the mother and see the baby. On the first 
three days of the month (32d — 34th days) she saw a number of 
people, and as she now noticed faces and voices her attention was 
a good deal taxed. She seemed restless afterward and slept less 
than usual, waking more easily. 

At about four months old she had several exciting days, all 
marked by happy interest during the excitement, but broken rest 
afterward. On the 121st day, her mother's sister was married from 
the house, and what with the arrival and dressing of bride and 
maids, the trip to church, where the baby was seized and passed 
about among kinsfolk she had never seen, and the return of the 
bridal party for lunch, her habits were entirely upset. She took all 
this with placid cheerfulness, although she had lost her morn- 
ing nap and had been subjected to an extra dressing; and after the 
company was gone and the house quiet, and we looked for fatigue, 
she showed only a sort of pleased excitement, and perhaps a 
heightened receptivity to sense impressions (see Music, p. 115, 
incident of the I2ist day); but she could not be got into a sleep 
that would last more than a few minutes, all the afternoon and 
evening; and during the night she waked repeatedly, always happy 
and wanting to play. The 1 30th day the baby was with her mother 
while she made and received several calls; and afterward showed 
again a pleasant excitement, — alert through her whole body, 
wanting to jump, and dance, and "feel her feet." She was coaxed 
to sleep with difficulty, and waked more than usual in the night. 
The 136th day a reception was given to the bridal couple: while 
the house was made ready, the baby was perfectly content to be 
neglected, as long as she could look on at the bustle; and while the 
rooms were occupied with company, she was happy and interested, 
with a smile for almost every one who spoke to her. Her mother 
took her away upstairs and put her to sleep, but she waked in five 
minutes, eager to go on with the fun, and would not sleep again. 
This time she became a little fretful by evening, but I have no 
record of restlessness at night. 

So again in the eighth and thirteenth months (220th, 221st, 
388th days) I find instances of happy excitement during the day, 



Shinn.] The Develop7nent of a Child. 259 

followed by restlessness, broken sleep, and unusual trouble and 
timidity on waking. In the tenth month her father used to take 
her in his arms and run about with her in the garden, calling her 
attention to many things. This caused excited joy, followed by fits 
of unusual peevishness, with tears and clamorous desire for new 
excitement; I have not noted, however, the effect upon sleep. As 
a rule, after the middle of the second year, trips were taken and a 
great deal of sight-seeing for so young a child experienced, with- 
out noticeable excitement, or after-effect of restlessness; but there 
were exceptions to this. Even in the first year there were times 
when an exciting day seemed to have no after-effect on sleep; and 
it was noticeable that excitement from discomfort and distress 
passed away more readily, without affecting sleep, than excitement 
from amusement. There were times, on the other hand, when after 
the most unexciting days the baby fretted and would not sleep, or 
wished to play instead of sleeping, and would wake laughing in a 
few minutes after she had been coaxed to sleep. 

In a single case (ninth month, 266th day) sleep may have been 
disturbed by nervousness following on agitation from pain and dis- 
comfort: the baby had fallen and skinned her lip, and afterward fell 
again on her face; had cried in vain to be taken outdoors (her one 
great comfort for all ills, refused her this time on account of the 
extreme heat of the weather); had been at last consoled by per- 
mission to pull books off some low shelves, and then had been 
interrupted suddenly in this charming occupation and carried off to 
be put to sleep. This succession of grievances put sleep to flight: 
she cried and resisted for an hour, whenever her mother tried to 
lay her down, and got only such sleep as she could, dozing in her 
mother's arras. It is likely that the effect on sleep in this case was 
due less to the previous excitement from the fall, than to the 
abrupt disturbance of a pleasant occupation: as early as the fifth 
month I note interruption of occupation as a cause of difficulty 
in getting the baby to sleep; and from the ninth month on to the 
middle of the second year instances occur over and over showing 
that when she was interested in something and was taken suddenly 
from it to be put to sleep, the disappointment, and probably also 
some nervous shock in the sudden wrench of attention (such as we 
ourselves experience in interruptions, sometimes with a feeling of 
18 



26o University of California. [Vol. i. 

almost physical distress) made it very hard to quiet her and get 
her to sleep. See also pp. 274, 275, below. 

In the second six months the fretfulness coming from lack of 
sleep seemed of itself, sometimes, to prevent sleep. I have notes 
of unusual sleepiness after a nap had been missed: but on the other 
hand, in the last week oif the ninth month (239th day), when the 
baby had lost her afternoon nap on account of a cold, she was got 
to sleep with much lulling at bedtime, waked in fifteen minutes,, 
and cried for an hour at intervals, while her mother tried to lull 
her; the cry grew very nervous toward the end, and the baby shed 
tears till her eyes were red. I thought her too fretted to get to 
sleep; and after her father came home and played a while with her,, 
thus relaxing the nervous tension, she dropped easily to sleep. 
Her mother thought that as a rule in this month she went to sleep 
more easily if she was taken before she grew fretful with sleepiness. 
When a nap had been broken, and the baby had become fretful 
over the loss of sleep, it was harder to lull her again than if she 
had not been so sleepy; and sometimes she would not sleep again, 
though visibly sleepy the rest of the day. I note one instance, 
however, (361st day,) in which she was fretful with sleep, crying 
easily, and was very willing to go to sleep, gladly assenting to the 
suggestion of "bylow." 

Though, as I have said, mental activity without excitement had 
no after-effect on sleep, interest easily dispelled sleepiness for the 
time being. This first appeared in the second month, 47th day, 
when the baby had been waked from a nap, and was fretting 
persistently with sleepiness; as her mother could not take her at 
once to put to sleep, I carried her to the piano and began striking 
chords to divert her; she became silent and absorbed immediately, 
and did not renew her crying till her mother came and took her 
away. In the fifth month (133d day) she had rubbed her eyes and 
seemed sleepy in my arms, so I gave her to her mother to be put 
to sleep; but she was no sooner settled than she began turning her 
head to look at me, and would not settle to sleep till I was out of 
sight, and she had looked for me for some minutes. The 136th 
day, when undressed while fretting with sleepiness, she stopped 
fretting at sight of her toes, and reached for them. Up to the end 
of the fifth month I could read in a low voice to the mother while 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 26 1 

she nursed the baby and lulled her to sleep; but after that gave it 
up, as my presence and voice were apt to interest her too much 
(see Hearing, p. iii). Late in the sixth month, when she was- 
fretful with sleepiness, and for some reason was not to be put at 
once to sleep, I took her into the kitchen, where she became deeply 
and happily absorbed in watching the dish-washing; but when she 
was taken away she cried hard, showing that she was still sleepy, 
but had been potently interested. The 171st day she would not 
sleep on a train, but sat staring with wide eyes. At a year old, she 
would not go to sleep, though very sleepy, in a large empty room,, 
where the voice that was lulling her echoed from the walls in a way 
that interested her deeply. In the twentieth month, though she 
had been twice interrupted in a nap, she would not go to sleep on 
a ferry-boat, but insisted on trotting round and round, exploring- 
with great interest. In the second and third years, when I some- 
times put her to sleep (as related below) with stories, I had to take 
care to make them uninteresting, — long, droning narrations. 

It is worth notice that in babies the sensation of sleepiness' 
seems so often to be a highly uncomfortable and irritating one, 
instead of a mere languor, as with us.^ After the middle of the 
second month, instead of simply becoming quiet and drowsy, the 
baby would often show want of sleep by fretfulness. (I noticed 
on the 47th day that just as in the case of hunger the pleasant 

^ The question has been raised whetlier it is in fact sleepiness, or the preven- 
tion of sleep after sleepiness has arrived, that causes the irritation. We ourselves 
find the feeling o{ resisted sleep (as in trying to keep awake during a dull address) 
most unpleasant; but the discomfort is not of the nature of irritability. On the 
other hand, when we have lost sleep, yet fail to experience a normal sleepiness,, 
we are apt to feel instead a marked irritability. It is probable that with both 
infant and adult the fretful condition is not properly sleepiness at all, but a 
form of fatigue, which appears much more frequently in infants than in adults, 
unless the latter suffer from insomnia. This may be largely because the habit 
of regular hours of sleep, at which the drowsy feeling will normally appear, 
is not yet estabUshed for the infant. It is usually in the first year that the 
fretful " sleepiness " is most apparent; and in my niece's case the second year 
showed a time habit in sleep already of some importance: at the beginning of 
the 17th month, an attempt to put her to sleep before the usual time apparently 
made her very wakeful, and the last night of the 21st month, though she 
seemed so tired and sleepy that she was put to bed two hours before her usual 
time, she did not go to sleep for an hour and a half. 



262 University of California. [Vol. i. 

mood never passed gradually into this fretful sleepiness, but always 
suddenly.) I have notes in every month of the first year, after the 
first, of fretting with sleepiness. Sensibility to disagreeables was 
heightened: in the fourth month, to be undressed while sleepy 
was a great grievance, sometimes causing wails and tears, though 
oftener merely whimpering; I note instances of the same behavior 
in the sixth month, and throughout the second and third years 
she was far more ready to cry if anything was taken from her, or 
if she was interrupted in any pleasure, or denied some whim, when 
she was somewhat sleepy. In the open air, when wheeled or driven 
about, sleep almost always came on without any such fretfulness. 
The power of attention, memory, etc., was lowered: at fifteen 
months, ^. ^., she became troubled when pressed to give a word 
while sleepy, though she knew it well and was usually very willing 
to give it. 

Rubbing eyes as a sign of sleepiness is first noted in the fifth 
month, 133d day: it was already a habit. 

It seems somewhat anomalous that a condition so natural and 
necessary as sleep should have to be artificially induced in the 
infant; and I find that some standard medical authorities on the 
care of infants say unhesitatingly that no baby need be lulled to 
sleep, but that a darkened room, quiet, and comfortable posi- 
tion, at the proper time, will always bring sleep, if no other influ- 
ences have ever been used. Other standard authorities admit, if 
a little reluctantly, the necessity of lulling in many cases. Sooth- 
ing the baby to sleep with songs and movements seems to have 
been the custom of mothers of all times and races, and it is hardly 
likely that a practice so arduous would have been so uniformly 
maintained had it been found superfluous. Even monkey mothers 
lull their babies in their arms, the cat licks her kittens to sleep, and 
the hen croons to the chicks under her wings. It is usually neces- 
sary for grown people to compose themselves to sleep for some time 
by deliberate effort, — an effort that must necessarily be made in 
behalf of a young infant by some one else. There are certainly 
normal differences between children in the ease with which they 
fall asleep. Many children will drop asleep amid their toys as they 
play about the floor, in their high-chairs at table, with food in their 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 263 

hands, or as they sit resting in some one's lap, listening to stories, 
etc. My niece was never but three times in her life thus overtaken 
by sleqp: and at seven years old, when many active and healthy 
children fall asleep "the minute their heads touch the pillow," as the 
saying is, she lies for some time, often half an hour, striving to 
sleep, and composing herself with all the songs and poems in her 
repertoire. 

It is frequently urged that even if the baby will not go to sleep 
peacefully when laid down by himself, he will cry himself to sleep 
if left alone, and in time will learn to fall asleep without crying. 
The wisdom of leaving a baby to cry himself to sleep is not a 
medical question, but a psychological one, and I cannot see that 
here the opinion of doctors has the value of that of competent 
mothers. Some careful mothers and nurses report most favorably 
of the practice. Others oppose it strongly, saying that a child left 
to cry himself to sleep may, instead of bringing about a gentle 
fatigue, grow more and more excited, and cry with hysterical vio- 
lence that might in some cases cause rupture, and certainly drives 
away sleep ; that when sleep does come after such distress and 
excitement it is less restful than when the child was soothed as 
tranquilly as possible; and that the general effect on the nervous 
system is bad. Old-fashioned mothers say, also, that the approach 
of sleep is accompanied by exceptional conditions of susceptibility, 
which the mother should not fail to take advantage of for the 
emotional development of the child ; that it is in the mother's 
lullaby and the association of her soothing and protecting presence, 
from the earliest dawn of consciousness, with this time of oncoming 
sleep, that some of the deepest roots are struck of the emotional 
relation between mother and child, which give it the almost mys- 
tical character it assumes in memory in after life; that as the child 
grows older, the bedtime hour is pre-eminently the time she should 
hold sacred to him, in which she will find his heart most open to 
all tender influence, and his confidence most completely hers; that 
the time and strength demanded by this ministry should no more 
be grudged by the devoted mother than she should grudge nursing 
her baby. Probably it is a matter in which extremes are to be 
avoided: every one has seen cases in which babies have become 
spoiled and tyrannical about going to sleep, and cases in which 



264 University of California. Vol. 1. 

mothers have inflicted much distress on themselves and the baby 
in compelling the little lonely, excited creature to cry itself to sleep 
for the sake of good discipline. Practically, too, the question of 
putting children to bed is apt to be complicated by rivalry between 
their claims and the husband's for the w^ife's society in the evening. 

As to the farther question of methods of lulling, there has been 
general medical objection to the cradle. It is said that the sleep 
induced by motion is not natural sleep, but of a hypnotic nature. 
V\oss{Das Kleine Kind, pp. 65-7o)sums up theopinion of different Ger- 
man authorities, and concludes that the real objection is not to gentle 
rocking into sleep, — which is, he says, essentially nature's method, 
as the infant is carried about on the mother's back, or lulled in her 
arms by a gentle swaying of her body, — but to rough and jolting 
motions, and to continuing the rocking after the child is asleep, as 
the cradle tempts one to do, I have pointed out above that the 
young child is certainly less susceptible to disagreeable sensations 
from jarring or from dizziness than the adult, and it is possible that 
the solicitude as to the effects of rocking infers too much from adult 
conditions. Even in the case of adults, there is no evidence that 
sailors suffer any harm from sleeping amid the motions of the ship, 
and people go yachting expressly for the sake of the refreshing 
■sleep which they claim the motion brings them. Birds, whose 
development of the ear-canals must make them especially sensitive 
to motion, sleep amid a swaying of branches that sometimes 
becomes quite violent without disturbing them. Our knowledge 
of the reasons why motion induces sleep seems to me still too 
limited to justify dogmatism on the subject. 

In the case of my niece, the nurse and grandmother being at 
one in advice, the mother decided to make no attempt to teach 
her to go to sleep alone. During the first two months, she usually 
dropped to sleep at the breast; at other times the nurse easily 
lulled her by patting. No one else seemed very successful with 
this method, but in the second month the motion of the baby- 
carriage usually brought sleep. As I have said above (p. 119) the 
rougher motion proved the more soothing, and even if the baby 
had been fretting as the carriage crossed the smooth veranda, her 
complaints would stop as soon as the wheels touched the gravel 
walk, and she would lie placidly till her lids dropped in sleep. At 



Shinn.] The Developvient of a Child. 265 

this time too, (latter part of the second month,) when she now and 
then had to be coaxed to sleep without the carriage, the most 
efficient way proved to be to lay her along my knees, her feet against 
my body, her head resting in my palm, and to trot her with a short, 
joggling motion, crooning monotonously; this process would send 
her to sleep even when she was crying quite hard.^ She went to 
sleep in driving more easily than when wheeled in the baby- 
carriage. 

In the third month, she was fond of being held up against her 
mother's right shoulder, so that she could get her left thumb into 
her mouth, and would then lie contentedly and go to sleep. 
Sucking the thumb, however, was not very firmly associated with 
sleep, for she sucked it also when wide-awake. About the middle 
of this month she was given a small, closed rubber nipple, which 
she soon began to suck instead; and within a week this became 
firmly associated with sleep. With this third month, also, the 
mother, wishing to limit the sleep association to herself, took 
exclusive charge of putting the baby to sleep (rocking in a chair 
and singing softly, the old-fashioned way); and by the 83d day 
evidence appeared that the association was somewhat established, 
when the baby, who was fretting in her grandmother's arms, 
nestled down contentedly and went to sleep in her mother's. (It is 
to be remembered that she did not know her mother by sight at 
this time, and had no preference for her, except as she recognized 
her touch and manner of holding in connection with sleep and 
feeding; indeed, as a rule, she had preferred her grandmother's 
arms.) The 89th day, her mother was occupied for the afternoon, 
and wished to delegate the putting to sleep for once: but after 
being entirely happy in my charge for an hour or two, when the 
baby grew sleepy she cried for her mother, and would not let me 
put her to sleep, nor be consoled till her mother took her. 

In the fifth month, the rocking and soft singing failed, and the 

^ It is said by experienced nurses that babies who refuse to go to sleep 
when rocked smoothly, are sometimes readily soothed by jolting. I have been 
told of one baby who had all the evening resisted efforts to put her to sleep, till 
in despair her grandmother took her, and sitting down in a kitchen chair began 
to tilt it back and forth, from front legs to back ; and this racking motion 
promptly sent the baby to sleep. Another baby would not go to sleep in a 
cradle till a stick of wood was put under the rockers, so that the cradle jolted 
heavily at every swing. 



266 University of California. [Vol. i. 

regular process of putting to sleep was to seat the baby upright on 
her mother's knee, give her the little rubber nipple to suck, and 
then joggle her roughly and monotonously up and down, singing, 
"John Brown had a little Injun," until she grew drowsy; then to 
cuddle her up in arms and go on with the singing very softly. 
Once in this month I find a note that she would not sleep, and 
fretted, and finally cried in earnest, until her mother rose and 
walked with her, when she became quiet, and in less than a minute 
dropped asleep; but walking with her was unusual (see also the 
incident below, p. 282). 

In the sixth month it became evident that the use of the rubber 
nipple to suggest sleep had become tyrannous. It had been left 
at a house where she was visiting, and she cried hard at having to 
go to sleep without it, and fumbled with her mouth and tongue for 
it all over her mother's face and shoulder. A week later she was 
accidentally waked in the midst of a nap, and the nipple was dis- 
covered to be elsewhere: she could not be got to sleep again with- 
out it till two or three hours later, when, being very sleepy, she was 
at last coaxed to sleep with a wooden handle shaped like the 
nipple. The nipple was not restored till afternoon of the next day, 
and every time that she went to sleep in the interval was after hard 
crying for five or ten minutes, or even half an hour. The mother 
now determined to withhold it and break hef of its use. The baby 
got through one night fairly well, and went to sleep at the breast 
for her morning nap, but lost her afternoon nap entirely; the next 
night she was awake crying two hours, and finally her mother 
surrendered and let her have the nipple. The comfort she expe- 
rienced in its use must have been quite positive, causing peculiarly 
pleasant associations, for twice in the latter half of this month, 
when the nipple was held up before her, she greeted it with a cry 
of delight, and demonstrations with hands and feet, — as I have 
seen babies greet the sight of their nursing-bottles. This raises 
the question whether the association of pleasure with the nursing- 
bottle is so entirely due to its connection with food as has been 
supposed. 

With the growth in importance of the nipple as a sleep- 
suggester the trotting ceased, and the gentle rocking and singing, 
with its help, was again sufficient. If the baby waked at night, to 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 267"" 

give her the nipple and sing a little was enough, without taking 
her up. In the twelfth month, 347th day, the mother tried again 
to break her of the use of the nipple: she cried hard and distress- 
^"^^Yi growing very nervous, and uttering short sharp, wails, as in 
pain, for about an hour, and her mother again surrendered; and 
(with the exceptions mentioned below) the use of the nipple 
remained imperative up to the end of the sixteenth month. At 
this time a bad cold made the child breathe through her mouth, so 
that she could not use the nipple; this cost her her day nap for 
some days, but she was got to sleep at night without it, and 
presently returned to the day nap also without it, and so dropped 
its use altogether with little difficulty, after all. 

Meanwhile, the nipple, singing, and rocking, had never been 
necessary when driving, though singing was a help even then; 
once in the eleventh month, 315th day, the baby went to sleep 
when driving after she had refused to sleep at home, even with the 
nipple and singing; in driving, also, she would go to sleep in any 
one's arms, but at home not unless her mother held her. In the 
ninth month a nap was now and then coaxed by giving the baby 
the juice of fruit to suck through a cloth, but the device soon failed. 
The 266th day she entirely refused to be put to sleep by her grand- 
mother in her mother's absence : when given a loq uat to suck, as 
soon as she perceived she was being put to sleep, she cried and 
did not care for the loquat. I took her and walked with her; she 
sat quietly in my arms, leaning on my breast, but would not Jay 
her head down; and when she found I was not going to take her 
outdoors, she began a low complaining murmur. I took her at 
last to the veranda, and walked up and down within the shade. 
She looked very happy till she perceived that I did not mean to go 
outside that small beat (on account of the extreme heat in the sun); 
then she began to look longingly at her baby-carriage each time 
we passed it as it stood on the veranda, turning her head to look 
back at it, till at last I put her into it. She broke into a bright 
smile, and was happy as long as I wheeled her about outdoors, 
though she was very tired and sleepy. She would not go to 
sleep, however, till she was taken driving, and even then resisted 
somewhat. 

With the latter part of the eleventh month the need of her 



2 68 University of California. [Vol. i. 

mother's arms as a condition of sleep became somewhat less imper- 
ative: on the 324th day she held her arms to come to me, and laid 
her head down on my shoulder as if to go to sleep; her mother 
took her away to bathe her, but afterward laid her back in my arms 
to see if she would really go to sleep there; she gave one little cry 
of protest, then laid her head down and went to sleep in my arms. 
Once this week when very sleepy she went to sleep when walked 
with by her father. In the following months, as long as the 
daily nap was kept up, she repeatedly allowed me to put her to 
sleep instead of her mother, but on the whole the association of 
sleep with her mother was pretty firm, and it was once or twice 
necessary for me to walk with her. It is to be observed that as 
neither the grandmother nor I could sing, and had to substitute a 
mere crooning, or tuneless chant, the absence of her mother meant 
also the loss of the accustomed lullaby. 

In the eighth month the grandmother said that while driving 
with her, the baby sang herself to sleep with a sort of crooning; 
in the ninth month when I began to croon "bylow" to her while 
driving, she took it up herself with a crooning sound, and at once 
dropped off to sleep. Just at the end of the year she took up a 
habit of beginning a little drawling sound when sleepy (a-a-a), 
which she liked to have some one return, then would drop it to a 
softer and languider note, till in effect she had sung herself to 
sleep. We found that when she began the notes, if they could be 
followed up at once by comfortable position, quiet, and an answer- 
ing crooning, — sometimes a little swaying to and fro in the arms, — 
she would usually go to sleep. This did not become a fixed habit, 
but for a time in the thirteenth month it interrupted the use of the 
nipple, which of course she could not suck while crooning. 

Some weeks before the use of the nipple ceased, the child had 
acquired a new habit connected with going to sleep : lying on her 
mother's arm, with her head on the shoulder and one arm about 
the neck, she would put up her hand and feel for the hairpins in her 
mother's thick coil of hair, to pull them out ; how early this began 
I did not notice, but by the last week of the fifteenth month she 
could not go to sleep, either in my arms or her mother's, unless she 
was pulling out the pins, and even after her lids had fallen the little 
hand would still fumble in the hair. I failed also to note the pass- 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 269 

ing away of the habit: it must have lasted a month or two, and 
doubtless aided in the emancipation from the nipple. After this, 
the mother put her to sleep with rocking and singing only, and I 
-sometimes (after the eighteenth month) with long monotonous nar- 
rations, rhymes, counting, etc., in a low even voice. These methods 
lasted in the case of the day nap until it was given up in the twenty- 
seventh month : in the latter months of the period, however, they 
sometimes failed, and nothing but a drive would bring the nap; 
sometimes even the drive failed. 

In the last week of the eighteenth month, (seventy-seventh week,) 
the child took up, quite of her own accord, the idea of going to 
sleep at night by herself in her crib. I cannot find that before the 
twentieth month she actually went to sleep thus more than once or 
twice: she would lie quite still for fifteen minutes or so, then call, 
"Mamma ta' Wu' !" and would be taken up and rocked to sleep; or 
else she would throw the covers off, and as she had a cold at the 
time, her mother would take her back to her lap, where she could 
keep her well wrapped. She objected much to this, and once in the 
eighty-second week I heard her crying and begging for "own bed! " 
At the beginning of the twentieth month, she was allowed to stay 
in it, and now fell asleep there without difficulty, and her joy in it 
was great; she seemed to have a real feeling of attachment for the 
little bed. Once when her mother went to turn her over and cover 
her after she was asleep, she roused slightly and murmured. ^' In 
bed ! " afraid she would be taken out. In the eighty-fourth week 
her mother took her back to her lap for a night or two, because 
she insisted in poking a foot out to feel the floor-matting with her 
toes; and she cried loud and long, begging, "In bed! " Neverthe- 
less, in the last week of the month, she began to resist going to bed, 
and in fact going to sleep anywhere, and had to be rocked and sung 
to sleep again for a fortnight. After this, she was willing and even 
desirous to go to sleep in her bed; but only on condition that her 
mother would stay beside her and sing. Her mother wished her 
to go to sleep alone, and I often heard her crying for an hour over 
this before she went to sleep. Once (ninetieth week) she cried so 
long and hard that her mother took her up and rocked her to sleep, 
and after that consented to stay beside her. For about a week the 
child was somewhat uneasy and solicitous, and when bed was pro- 



270 University of California. [Vol. r. 

posed would ask, "Mamma lie down on mamma bed?" and when 
assured that her mother would he beside her and sing, would go 
happily to bed; in her crib, she would nestle about, talk, ask for a 
drink, hold her mother's hand, and finally drop to sleep. By the 
first night of the twenty-second month she was reassured, and 
would ask when undressed to be put in "our dear little bed." 

In the last quarter-year her mother tried gradually to accustom 
her to being left to go to sleep by herself, and by the twenty-fourth 
month I find her submitting to it without actual protest, but with 
devices to detain her mother at her side, such as offering to tell her 
a story. Instances of this occurred throughout the third year, and 
indeed are not unknown at seven years old. The mother always 
sat in an adjoining room, lighted, and separated only by a portiere, 
and there was usually talking and reading going on, so that the 
child was well aware of her neighborhood. 

The last night of the second year the association of being put 
to bed by her mother and having her at least close by, was for the 
first time broken, and with unexpected ease. The mother was 
obliged to go to a sister who was ill : the matter was explained to 
the child, and she was asked if she would let aunty put her to bed, 
that mamma might go and take care of poor Aunt May. She said, 
" Ye' " easily, kissed her mother goodnight with entire cheerfulness, 
finished the peach she was eating, let me wash her hands and face, 
and asked in her politest way, "Aunty, may Ruth have cubes?" 
(Hailmann beads, see Sight, Form), played happily for twenty min- 
utes, then consented readily to go to bed, kissed the family good- 
night pleasantly, and let me undress her and put her to bed with- 
out a complaint. It is likely that she was sustained by a special 
pride of good behavior on this occasion ; and also by the privilege 
of keeping me beside her till she went to sleep, in consideration of 
her mother's absence. She asked me to "lie down on big bed," 
and tell a story; I told a long, monotonous one, and she punctuated 
it with contented "yeses" till she dropped off to sleep. The next 
night she expressed some desire to have me put her to bed again; 
but the night after, when told her mother must go, began to cry; 
as soon as I came to her, however, she put her arms around my 
neck, kissed her mother goodnight cheerfully, and went to sleep 
without resistance under a long murmuring story, — again dropping 
in a sleepy "yes" whenever I struck a familiar image. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 27 1 

After this, throughout the third year, the mother was obliged 
to be away from home repeatedly for several days at a time, and 
the little one's crib was at such times placed in my room. I always 
stayed beside her till she slept, and thus had the opportunity to 
observe her habits in going to sleep. The first time (last week of 
the twenty-fifth month) she went off to bed with me gayly, laughing 
at the novelty of having her crib upstairs, got into an irrepressible 
gale on my bed, capering wildly, shouting, and laughing; after she 
was in her crib, she wished a story, and then consented to go to 
sleep while I lay near by. She had a doll in her arms, (from the 
sixteenth month she had now and then insisted on going to sleep 
with a favorite doll in her arms, and does still ; but it never became 
a fixed habit, at all necessary to sleep,) and talked to it a few 
minutes, nestling about, then dropped suddenly asleep. Later she 
waked and cried (see below, p. 286-7) and was at last rocked to sleep. 
The next night she talked a while, asked for a story, lay silent a 
while trying to go to sleep, prattled a little to herself, then flung 
herself across the rail of her crib, and putting her arms around my 
neck as I lay close to the edge of my own bed, lay dozing, her 
Tiead on the rail of her crib, pressed against my face; and even in 
her sleep she would cling closer if I moved, and twice, rousing a 
little, kissed my face and hair; it was some minutes, and she was 
fairly asleep, before she rolled off to a more comfortable position. 
The next night she wanted a book to "read" in the dark (as she 
had done waking in half-light that morning), prattled a little from 
it and wished me to do so, listened to a few Mother Goose rhymes, 
then, told she must lie still and go to sleep, prattled to herself and 
wriggled about a long time first. So during several more nights 
that she slept beside me, and on other occasions through the year 
when she was with me for a few nights, she accepted me easily in 
place of her mother, helped by the fact that I placed her crib more 
closely against my bed, and lay beside her till she slept, so that 
she could reach over and cling to me, or during the night could 
sometimes creep over into my bed. In the 27th month, her crib 
was set as close beside her mother's, so that she could crawl over 
and cling to her in the night, as she had been doing with me. The 
next time that she slept beside me, she whimpered for her mother 
a little, but as long as I talked to her was content; when I stopped. 



2^] 2 University of Calif or7iia. [Vol. r- 

she would begin to call for her mother, so I had to talk her to 
sleep. Two months later, however, she was perfectly content 
to go to sleep beside me, rolled over and put her hands about my 
neck, and asked questions about owls, bees, etc., listening drowsily 
to the chat about them, which I made low and monotonous, till she 
dropped asleep. It was my theory that this quiet talk tranquilized 
her better for sleep than to be left in entire silence. 

Once in the 27th month, when her mother was going out 
in the evening, the child went cheerfully to bed with me, but 
when her mother came in with wraps on to kiss her goodnight, 
began to cry for her. In the thirty-second month, a young girl 
came to the house to take partial care of her in the daytime for a 
few weeks; and the very first night she was in the house, only 
about an hour after her arrival, the child, who had so far made no 
acquaintance with her, dismissed her mother as soon as she was 
put in bed, saying, "You may go away; Clara will stay with me," 
and was more than satisfied to have the stranger beside her till she 
slept. In the thirty-third month, returning from a camping trip of 
two weeks, for several nights she wished me instead of her mother 
to put her to bed. 

There seemed to be in my niece's case not merely difficulty in 
getting to sleep, but for months at a time an absolute repugnance 
and resistance to sleep. This seemed at first due to a desire to 
play instead of keeping still. It did not appear till toward the 
middle of the fifth month: one day in this month (134th day) her 
father came home at evening while her mother was putting her to 
sleep, and interrupted the proceeding in order to play with her for 
a long time. The next evening at the same hour her mother took 
her to put to sleep; but the baby kept breaking into the lullaby 
with a troubled litde cry, and finally an incipient wail. We could 
not find any possible reason, and concluded it was a coming tooth 
that pained her; her mother gave her a finger to bite, cuddled and 
pitied her, and at last, for want of anything else to do, as the fretting 
cries continued, lifted the baby against her face, letting her bite and 
mumble at cheek and chin. At this the baby turned and smiled 
broadly at me, and we perceived that she had simply been fretting 
for a frolic. Her mother put her on her foot and swung her up 



shinn.] The Developmejit of a Child. 273, 

and down, and she was joyously content, and after a little play 
grew drowsy and went readily to sleep. No doubt, had her mother 
tried to force her to go to sleep, she would have resisted more and 
more, become excited and sleepless, and lost more sleep than b}^ 
the concession-/ but on the other hand, had the going to sleep not 
been interrupted the night before, she would have slept this evening 
without resistance. The next day occurred the reception spoken 
of above, when her pleasure and excitement kept her from sleep; 
and the next evening she cried over being put to sleep because she 
was disappointed at having to leave a plaything. After this I find 
recurring notes of resistance to sleep, and desire to play instead. 
In the latter half of the fifth month it was very common for her 
to wish to stay in the family room and play, and to whimper 
when taken away to bed; she was usually wide awake and full of 
gayety at just this time. The 225th day it was noticed that she 
babbled more freely toward bedtime. This same night her mother 
brought her into the family room to say goodnight before putting 
her to sleep, and she fairly squealed and sprang to be taken by her 
grandfather (who was her best playmate), and was very unwilling 
to go back to her mother, as if suspecting she would then be put to 
sleep. This reluctance to go to her mother at bedtime had been 
growing evident since the beginning of the eighth month or earlier, 
and it now became quite marked. The 229th and 230th days, 

^ It is likely that too much inflexibility in trying to force a wide-awake, 
playful baby to sleep ends in nervous excitement that not only puts sleep still 
farther off for the time, but establishes most unpleasant associations with the 
process of being put to sleep, which will affect it for some time. It is doubtless 
good counsel that care should be taken not to get the baby wide-awake and 
full of play as bedtime approaches; but it seems to me also good counsel (as 
given by the grandmother) that when the baby is already in this mood, it 
is better to let her get a little of the play out of her before trying to make 
her sleep. See also an incident of the 239th day (p. 260, above) concerning 
the effect of a little play in restoring nervous equilibrium and making sleep 
possible. So too in the second year, when the child was just seventeen 
months old, she showed an unusual fretfulness at dinner when brought in 
from outdoors, cried to go out again, then to be allowed to hold her own cup 
and spoon, etc., in a manner most unlike her. After she was undressed, the 
evening being very warm, I rolled her in her little blanket and took her 
outdoors and let her see the moon, the toads hopping about the garden, and 
so on; she became quiet and happy, and was soon quite content to come in 
and to go to sleep. 



;'274 University of California. [Vol. i. 

- when her mother tried to take her from me after she was in her 
nightgown, she whirled about and clung tightly and persistently to 
me. The 231st day, after she was ready for bed, she was put down 
on a table, where she rolled and played about till her mother came 
to get her, at which she whirled away, clutched at the table, and 
iDuried her face to cling there, as she had done in my arms; when 
taken, however, she went perfectly pleasantly. The 240th day, 
although she had had no morning nap, she would not go to 
sleep when wheeled out in the baby-carriage in the afternoon, 
but sat bolt upright with lids drooping, striving to keep awake, — 
I thought because of desire to enjoy the outing. An instance of 
her resistance to sleep on the 266th day has been given above. 

At the end of the tenth month came a change. The 302d day, 
waked in a nap, she clung to her mother, hiding her face on her 
shoulder, and showing desire to sleep again, though she could not; 
and again a half-hour later, when undressed to be put to bed, she 
clung to her mother, hiding her face and feeling for the rubber 
nipple, desiring to be lulled, instead of resisting. During the next 
week she cried hard, as before, over being put to sleep, and on the 
303d day, when her father took her as she was playing with me, 
though she reached her hands willingly to go to him, she cried out as 
soon as he turned to the bedroom door and reached her arms back 
to me, and as the door shut behind her broke out crying bitterly. 
But on the 309th day, when her mother put the nipple in her mouth 
as a preliminary to carrying her off for her afternoon nap, she laid 
her head down at once on her mother's shoulder, and slept readily ; 
and during the rest of the eleventh month, and still more in the 
twelfth month, it was the rule (not without exceptions) that she 
went readily and cheerfully to sleep, if tact was used in not breaking 
too suddenly into an employment, and in taking her when she was 
sleepy, but not sleepy enough to have become fretted. The 324th 
day, as noted above, she composed herself voluntarily to go to 
sleep in my arms; the 325th day her mother told me that she 
asked to go for her nap, uttering begging sounds till her mother 
took her in arms, saying, "Shall mamma put Ruth bylow ? " to 
which the child answered with a sound of satisfaction, and settled 
, down gladly to sleep. In the twelfth month I often heard her 
, gladly assent to the suggestion; in the fifty-first week when asked, 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 275 

•'Shall we get the 'stopper' [nipple, which was set in a stopper-like 
ivory disk] and go bylow ? " she would nod, and put out her hands 
and take the nipple, put it in her mouth, and nestle down in her 
mother's arms in the usual position to go to sleep. 

In the last week of the year she began to resist the second daily 
nap, keeping resolutely awake all the afternoon, though very sleepy, 
and crying if any one tried to put her to sleep; and this resistance 
was kept up till the afternoon nap was given up: but I have no 
other note of resistance to sleep till late in the fourteenth month, 
when I find mention of her "Na, na, na ! " shaking or nodding her 
head vigorously, in protest against bed ; in the sixty-first week I 
note that while she never showed anger, there was a certain resent- 
ment at being taken away to sleep, and she would refuse to kiss 
goodnight, — perhaps with a crude idea that by doing so she made 
it sure that she would be taken. I have notes up to the latter part 
of the twentieth month of this reluctance to bid goodnight when 
taken to bed against her protest. At such times, however, she soon 
developed a considerable desire to come out again and kiss the family 
all round after being taken to bed. In the fifteenth month I note a 
disposition to cling very close to me as bedtime approached. On 
the whole, however, she went cheerfully to bed through the whole, 
of this half year, though usually not without a certain amount of 
protest ; and if she was suddenly taken away from an interesting 
occupation (as turning over a favorite basketful of buttons) there 
was sometimes bitter crying. 

At eighteen months old, as mentioned above (p. 199), she once 
asked for " bed " after a hard play ; but a week later was exceedingly 
unwilling to be put to sleep, and cried hard over it ; and when her 
mother proposed to tell her a story, she began to cry and protest at 
once, knowing that it was intended to inveigle her into sleeping. 
After this, throughout the third quarter of the year, she became again 
very averse to going to bed ; some vigorous protests against the 
nap, too, or absolute refusal of it, are noted. In the eighty-first and 
eighty-second weeks, when her mother came to take her to bed, 
she would cling to me, sometimes stiffening her back with a little 
temper and crying out in intense protest. "Aunty come back!" 
she would call after me in the twentieth month when I left her in 
her mother's lap; "Aunty take Ruth more!" when her mother 
19 



276 University of California. [Vol. u 

came to take her, — clinging and cuddling to me, her face pressed 
against mine. In the twentieth and twenty-first months it was not 
uncommon for her to cry bitterly, sometimes for an hour, over being 
put to sleep. Once in the ninetieth week, brought indoors to be put 
to bed, she was no sooner set down on the floor than she made a 
dash first for one door and then for the other. When caught, 
however, she gave up and went to bed graciously enough. In 
other cases, after some loud scolding and protesting, she would 
go quite cheerfully to bed. One evening in the eighty-eighth week, 
she whimpered to go to her mother from her father after she was 
undressed, and after consenting to kiss me goodnight dismissed 
me peremptorily with, " Go 'way ! " and as I lingered outside the 
door to see her settle herself for sleep, added sternly, "Shut door ! " 
The recurrence of aversion to going to bed in this quarter-year 
was very likely connected with the transition from going to sleep 
in her mother's lap to going to sleep in the crib. When the ques- 
tion of method was settled to her liking, the aversion seems to have 
disappeared; at least, I find no note of it afterward. 

In the third year, I find scarcely a hint of resistance to 
going to bed; nothing more than that she now and then went 
"reluctantly;" and once in the twenty-ninth month, when her 
father came to take her to bed, she tried to put him off with, "I 
busy." My record in the third year, taxed by the increasing com- 
plexity of psychical development, is far from full in these matters, 
and such an incident is doubtless but one of many : .but I have notes 
enough that show a general habit of cheerful, readiness to go to 
bed. In the twenty-fifth month, e. g., "Her mother calling her to 
come to bed, she rose obediently, kissed us all, and trotted off, 
tugging chair and doll." In the first week of the twenty-seventh 
month, immediately after supper, she announced that she wished to 
" go straight to bed," — probably because she was to sleep upstairs 
with me, a novelty; it was an hour before her time, but she stuck to 
it, and went happily to bed. A week later she seemed sleepy at 
dinner and I asked if she would like to go to bed. " Yes. And 
have my clothes off, — so," showing in a pantomime. She was 
firm in the purpose, and was undressed and went. In the second 
week of the thirty-second month I note that she habitually asks to 
be undressed and put to bed about 8 o'clock. (Her bedtime had 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 'lyj 

always been later than that of most babies on account of her father's 
late return by train.) 

To some extent in the second year, and still more in the third, 
she was disposed to caper and play when undressed, and had to be 
kept under some repression even after she was in her crib. In the 
early part of the twenty-seventh month she regarded it as a joke to 
keep putting out a foot or hand from the warm crib into the 
December air. Later the same month, I went in one evening after 
she had been left in bed, and found her jumping round on her 
mother's bed in great spirits. " Did mamma say you might ? " I 
asked. "No," said the child composedly: "she sai', 'Tay i' you 
li' be' " ("she said, Stay in your little bed "). Her mother coming 
in at the moment ordered her back into bed, and after lingering as 
long as she dared, she obeyed ; then, " Mamma, I want a drink ! " 
As soon as her mother was gone for water, she climbed out and 
began capering round again. " Ruth ! " said her mother sternly, 
returning. " Here ! " called the child with a dramatically innocent 
tone. She scrambled back to bed at the last moment she dared, 
and then proposed to " give aunty part of my drink," as a pretext 
for another excursion. 

Reluctance to go to bed even in the first year, and still more in 
the second, could often be allayed by certain ceremonies: thus in the 
latter part of the fourteenth month she "could be reconciled even to 
going to bed" by being set to waving "by-by" with a handkerchief, 
a highly valued accomplishment. At eighteen months old she 
attached great importance to my carrying her into the bedroom 
and laying her down in her mother's lap to be undressed, and 
would give up her occupations and go contentedly on this condi- 
tion: the next week she wished me to take her after she was 
undressed and lay her in her mother's lap, — the more purely "a 
ceremony, as she was then laid at once in her crib; it would not 
answer at all, however, for her mother to lift her in the first place 
and put her in her crib. Later in the month, though she would 
cry out in protest at being taken from me to put to bed, she would 
become quite content if I would agree to go with her and sit by 
while she was undressed; fiext (twentieth month) she wished me 
nightly to come in and lay her in her crib. Once (twenty-first 
month) being arrested on the stairs while bringing down a little 



278 University of California. [Vol. i. 

Isucket with shells in it, she resisted strongly, crying, "Want go up- 
stairs!" and protesting against the idea of bed; but when she found 
protest vain, she asked that she might take the bucket of shells with 
lier, and when this was granted, became somewhat reconciled. In 
the twenty-seventh month, though carried off to bed while her 
interest in the striking of an old clock that she had been allowed to 
experiment with was still intense, she made no resistance, the sug- 
gestion, "Say, 'Goodnight, little clock,' " being enough to reconcile 
her to parting, as a similar one usually did at the time. 

The increase of disposition to affection and confidence at bed- 
time was very perceptible to me in the third year, as it had been 
earlier to her mother. Her willingness in the latter months of the 
first year to nestle in her mother's arms, or even mine, to be put to 
sleep, had showed the rudiment of this, since she was ordinarily an 
independent child, not disposed to be held or caressed. It was 
clearly evident in her desire to keep her mother by her, to hold her 
land and feel her companionship, in the latter half of the second 
year. Several times during this period, when her mother refused 
laer hand on cold nights, the child begged to be allowed instead the 
end of her mother's long braid of hair, and went to sleep clinging 
to that. The desire of my attendance to lay her in her mother's 
lap, etc., had some element of the same increased sense of need for 
companionship: she was not especially loath to part with me at 
other times. Several instances have been given above of her cling- 
ing behavior when she slept with me in the third year, and many 
others might be given. Once, e. g., at the end of the twenty-fifth 
month, when I blew out the light, lying on the bed beside her, she 
presently rolled over, felt for me and hugged me a few moments, 
tiien back to her nestling and prattling to herself, — not as if she 
felt fear in the dark, and wished to assure herself of my protection, 
but as if she experienced a wave of affection in the consciousness 
©f my coinpanionsliip in the darkness. So too during the night: in 
tHs same week, e. g., finding her uncovered and chilled, I wished to 
take her into my bed; she refused, and cried and resisted when I 
tried to lift her in, so I waited till she had dropped asleep, then 
moved her; and when she was once there, rousing from time to 
time, she clung sleepily to me, felt with her arms to put them 



Shinn.] The Developmoit of a Child. 279 

around my neck, patted my hair and face, and once felt with her 
hps, half asleep, to kiss, murmuring my name, then dropping asleep 
again. Even as early as the eighteenth month I find instances 
of willingness to curl up in one's arms for a confidential chat at 
bedtime; and at twenty-five months I found her in an affectionate 
and acquiescent mood for a talk on misdoings of the day. 

There was much that was quite striking in her behavior on 
awaking from sleep. The first note that I have on the subject 
records a condition of high general felicity after sleep: this was on 
the 3 2d day, when, having slept very late, and being comfortable 
otherwise, the baby was jollier than I had ever seen her, smiling 
over and over. After the long sleep (8 hours) of the 56th night, 
she was very active about holding up her head and insisting on 
being given a sitting position, — yet perhaps not more so than 
usual: after the long sleep of the 6ist night (9^ hours) she was in 
high good humor all the morning, and showed delight in some col- 
ored strips with which "we had before failed to attract her attention. 
Throughout the whole record I have notes of contentment or jollity 
after a good sleep. On the other hand, there was sometimes 
noticeable fretfulness after a nap: I note it but once in the first 
five months (47th day); but from the beginning of the sixth monthi 
I find repeated notes of a fretful mood and disposition to cry, last- 
ing sometimes a few minutes, sometimes for hours, after a nap. 
The reason for such difference of moods was not clear, but I have 
made some conjectures concerning it, as will be seen below. 

That the baby should often whimper on waking was to be 
expected in the earliest months, as she was likely after the interval 
of sleep to be uncomfortable from hunger, thirst, or wetness. Yet 
after the 91^-hour sleep, an extremely long interval, she -did not 
cry, and showed hunger only by vigorous sucking of her fist 
This made me suspect that the discomfort sometimes shown on 
waking might include a little remnant of sleepiness, even when she 
seemed to have waked quite spontaneously: the sleep had perhaps 
been broken in its light final stage by some imperceptible disturb- 
ance before the baby had quite had enough. I have a note on the 
105 th day that she was waked in the middle of a nap by being 
bundled off the cars, and took it with entire cheerfulness; but it was 
of course exceptional not to show discomfort from a broken nap. 



2*80 Utiiversity of California. [Vol. i. 

On the same day (326) that I noted in the morning her unusual 
display of smiles, she wept at noon her first tears, having waked 
alone and cried some time without being heard. There was no 
evidence as yet that this unusual distress was due to anything more 
than the continuance of the uncomfortable sensations that had 
caused the crying; but it did become evident soon that to wake 
and cry awhile alone, without bringing help, gave her a distress 
that had an element of terror. Being left alone in itself she did 
not always mind, — she lay contentedly alone in a room for a half 
hour while the family went to breakfast, on the 37th day; nor even 
waking alone in itself, — as when, on the 112th day, she waked 
before light in the morning (alone, so far as she could perceive, in 
the dark) and announced herself by a series of loud and joyous 
croaks. It was only after crying awhile alone and unnoticed that the 
note of panic appeared. In the last week of the fourth month, 
the 119th day, she waked alone in the dark, and had been crying 
some time before her mother heard her and brought her out to 
where we were at dinner, and put her into her high-chair, where 
she was usually very happy in the lights and sounds. She had 
evidently grown frightened while crying alone and was not yet fully 
reassured, and was quite unwilling to leave her mother's arms; she 
kept leaning toward her from the high-chair (she had not yet 
learned to hold out her arms) and uttering troubled cries; then as it 
was some minutes before her mother took her, she grew more and 
more disturbed, till she was crying in real fright again, and was 
soothed with difficulty. The next afternoon at about the same 
time, waking alone, she began at once to cry with the note of 
fright, and was hard to soothe. I did not think the dark had much 
to do with her fear, except as it helped to recall the impressions of 
the afternoon before. The I22d day, after there had been time for 
this association to fade, she waked, and even cried alone in the dark 
for a while before she was heard, without showing any of the fear 
of a few days before: but she was still in a condition of happy 
excitement from events of the day before, and as noted above 
(p. 258) both on this occasion and twice in the fifth month, though 
unable to sleep much, she always waked in joyous spirits while the 
effect of the excitement remained. 

Ill the last week of the fifth month (147th day) she waked in 



Shinn.] The Developmeyit of a Child. 28 1 

the evening and whimpered, and her mother being absent, her 
father took her up and attempted to soothe her. This was a new 
proceeding, and evidently excited a feehng of fear, and by the time 
her increasing cries had summoned grandmother and aunt, she was 
in a good deal of panic, crying tears, and was with some difficulty 
quieted and diverted until her mother's return, some twenty minutes 
later. Once in the sixth month, 164th day, she showed fear when 
I took her, in the dark, from her mother's arms just after she had 
waked; but when I had brought a light, she recognized me with 
a smile. 

It was evident that so far there had been only occasional alarms 
on account of some special cause just after sleep; but in the latter 
part of the seventh month I noticed that she was habitually troubled 
and timid on first waking, clinging to her mother and ready to cry 
pitifully if taken from her. This I note over and over in the first 
half of the eighth month. In the tenth month she usually cried 
hard immediately on waking, though by the eleventh month a sort 
of troubled whimpering of "Mam-mam-mam" was commoner. It 
seemed strange that so happy a child should so rarely wake 
happy, and I felt satisfied that there was some confusion of mind 
in returning to consciousness that caused fear or distress, which 
was deepened by finding herself alone, as she commonly did on 
waking from a nap, and that it would be well if some one could 
always be in sight when she waked, — ■ at least until associations of 
confidence and familiarity could replace the unpleasant ones that 
had gathered about the moment of waking. In the eleventh 
month, 325th day, I found an opportunity to step at once to her 
at the first stir of waking, and found her lifting her head from the 
pillow and saying, " Mam-mam," in a whimpering tone. When she 
saw me, as I stood quietly beside the crib, she laid her head down 
again for nearly a minute, as if she would sleep again; then began 
to nestle and complain, got up, holding to the edge of the crib, and 
clung to me, and presently held out her arms, and when I took her, 
she seemed at once happy and sunny. In the afternoon her mother 
took her up when she cried on waking from her nap, and carried 
her into the next room; she seemed sleepy and shy, but almost at 
once pointed to a picture that she knew, and then to me, with 
a curious effect of rediscovering her world, — coming back to 



282 University of California. [Vol. i. 

recognition of her surroundings, — and soon was bright and happy 
again. This behavior confirmed my impression that she passed 
through some stage of intimidating confusion on the borderland 
of sleep, ■ — due doubtless to slow re-establishment of cerebral 
circulation, or to disturbances of general sensation, but just what 
sort of confusion would be hard to guess in the case of such a little 
thing, — and that she found a familiar face and protecting arms quite 
a rope to cling to while she made her way back to firm ground of 
waking consciousness. 

In the latter part of the eleventh month, though she still cried 
when she waked alone, she seemed growing less timid than she 
had been. But the 332d day she waked alone in the dark, while 
her father was talking loudly in a neighboring room (perhaps was 
waked by the sound of his voice, and did not recognize it through 
the wall) and cried some time before she was heard. When- she 
was taken up, she quieted a little, then began crying again, and 
cried harder and harder, quieting, then breaking out again, for 
nearly an hour: she never had cried so in her life except once 
for a colic, an unfamiliar ailment which seemed to cause her more 
terror than pain (see Pain, p. 154, footnote). The efforts of the 
concerned and sympathetic family to divert her probably added to 
her excitement; she clung to her mother, would have no one else 
and cried least when her mother walked about with her in a 
brightly lighted room, talking softly and cheerfully to her. At 
last, when she was quite tired out, her grandmother brought her 
a drink of water; she took it gratefully, and almost at once fell 
asleep. During the night she waked often, crying. For some 
days after this her crying on waking alone was invariable; but 
on the 338th day she slept three hours later than usual in the 
morning, and on waking made no cry, but tried to help herself to 
the cup of milk left standing beside her crib since the midnight 
meal, and only after spilling the remnant of this did she raise her 
voice. Her father came to her then, and she instantly reached 
her arms to him and pointed, begging to be taken outdoors. She 
was afterward unusually happy in the bath. This incident renewed 
my impression of the second month that if sleep could be absolutely 
finished out to the end, the state of confusion and uneasiness would 
not intervene between sleep and waking. The moral of this is that 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 283 

it is well to guard the quiet of a baby's sleep and prolong it to the 
utmost, instead of trying to accustom him to sleep through noises. 
In the later years of childhood (see pp. 255-6, above) sleep is so 
much sounder than in infancy that if such training is necessary 
(and of course sleepers cannot expect to go through life in a 
cloistered seclusion from sounds) it can be begun then. 

In the early months of the second year the habit of waking in 
distress rather increased than lessened. In the thirteenth month I 
note that the child always wakes crying most bitterly, as if in 
grief or pain. In the last week of the month (fifty-sixth week) she 
waked from a nap prematurely and was very willing to let me 
put her to sleep again: she did not go soundly enough to sleep 
however, to be laid down, so I sat holding her till she waked. She 
opened her eyes and looked into my face with a startled expression 
at first; then she sat up and pointed to a picture of a dog on the 
wall, saying, "Wow-wow!" (again as if relocating herself by means 
of a familiar object.) She was willing at once to be put on the 
fl.oor, went directly to her toys, and was much interested in them; 
there was no interval of crying and clinging, and I was disposed 
to attribute it to the fact that she had opened her eyes to a 
familiar face. 

I had not hitherto attributed her distress in waking to any fear 
of the dark, though darkness doubtless heightened timidity from 
other causes. I now noticed, with the beginning of the fourteenth 
month, that when she waked and cried in the dark, she was not 
easily soothed unless a light was taken when one went to her, I 
shall discuss this point of fear of the dark more fully under the 
head of Fear; but as far as it was especially connected with waking, 
it seemed to be mainly an acquired fear, due to her having always 
gone to sleep with a light in the room, so that when she waked the 
conditions were strangely changed from those of her last waking 
consciousness, the people and things she knew had disappeared, 
and she had had no experience to lead her to think of them as still 
present, as .she would have done had she been accustomed to the 
dark while awake. She waked, so to speak, to find herself lost in 
the darkness. It seems to me desirable on this account, if no 
other, that babies should be put to sleep in a dark room. 

During- the fifteenth and sixteenth months I find no note about 



284 University of California. [Vol. i. 

her behavior on waking, and in the seventeenth one or two refer- 
ences to her waking very sunny in the morning, spilhng over with 
jollity and activity, when the night's sleep had been long and full. 
She would be notably clear in mind after such a waking, recalling 
her small vocabulary with facility, and talking more than usual. 
After a daytime nap, on the other hand, either distressed crying or 
a condition of timidity and mental arrest seems to have been com- 
mon (though my notes are not full or explicit on the point). One 
afternoon, at the beginning of the nineteenth month, she had just 
waked from a nap, and was sitting on her mother's lap when I came 
in from the city. She greeted me with a habitual and almost 
mechanical question of " Papa } " (he sometimes returned on the 
same train with me and sometimes not, so that it was a regular 
subject of inquiry), but paid no farther attention to my entrance. 
Presently her grandmother kissed her: on which she put up her 
lip and almost cried, — not peevishly, nor in annoyance, but in a 
pathetic way, as if her feelings were hurt. I tried it, and then her 
mother, with the same result. She would not look at us nor heed 
questions, but sat looking absently before her, eating a cracker (she 
had waked hungry) and seeming as if her brain were dormant. At 
last something we said to each other interested her, and she slowly 
came out of her absent condition and became like herself 

At the beginning of the twenty-first month, her fretfulness and 
crying on waking from a nap were surprising: the 6iith day, for 
instance, she lay in my arms for many minutes, breaking into crying 
at the least crossing of a whim, — e. g., having been given a cracker, 
she asked for " one in the other hand;" her mother broke the one 
she had in two, and put a piece in each hand, as an easy way of 
gratifying the fancy, (which was common at the time and did not 
seem to be any wish for a double amount of cracker, but merely 
regard for symmetry); but the child broke into violent crying, and 
could not be consoled until another cracker was brought. Such 
crying, I noted at the time, was never heard from her except just 
after sleep and when her mother was trying to put her to sleep. 
Later in the month, the 621st day, I stood beside her when she 
waked from a nap, and had my arm about her before she was fairly 
awake. She did not cry, nor show the frequent distress and 
fretfulness; but seemed to go through a stage of confusion and 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. ■285 

discomfort in waking, staring in a startled way; rose to her knees 
with her eyes shut, putting her hands to her face and moving 
blindly and bewilderedly. Yet she had no hesitation in recognizing 
me, and came to me cheerfully, asked for her mother, but not 
urgently, and when her mother came, wished to go to her, and 
clung about her neck a little, but without fretfulness. 

In spite of the peculiar clinging dependence that appeared when 
she waked crying, I had not hitherto seen that the sense of need 
had attached itself exclusively to the mother. In the thirteenth 
month (379th day), waking in the evening in her mother's absence, 
the child had allowed me to take her without any timidity, clinging 
to me amid her crying, and kissing me over and over, — though 
after she was fairly awake and occupied with something, she stopped 
to say plaintively, " Mamma! " From that time up to the twenty- 
first month, the general effect of my notes had been only that she 
was apt to want her mother at such times, and to be very shy of 
strangers. But on the 626th day, waking from a nap in her mother's 
absence, she cried in good earnest for her, and when taken upstairs 
and offered her favorite diversions, she turned from them in a few 
seconds to urge "See mamma!" and broke into a wail when told 
mamma was coming back, which she well understood as implying 
that for the present she was gone. On this occasion a loquat finally 
consoled her; but for a fortnight more I find notes that on waking 
from naps she will have nothing but " mammal " and seems to find 
the world desolate if she cannot have her instantly. Yet her 
mother's presence did not allay the trouble: even in her arms the 
child would cry in a distressed way. 

Meanwhile a habit of crying wildly in the night had begun, — I 
can hardly say how far back, as I was not with her at night, but 
certainly by the twentieth month. One night in the latter part of 
that month, I slept with her mother, and took careful notice of one 
of these fits of crying. It was in a strange place, but I could not 
say whether that had anything to do with it, for she often cried in 
the same manner at home. She asked almost at once for the light, 
and her mother said that whenever she waked in the night, if the 
light was not promptly lit she would get to crying thus. After she 
was somewhat soothed, she lay for nearly an hour and a half dozing 
lightly, ready to wake and cry if her mother removed the arm about 



286 University of Calif oiniia. [Vol. r. 

her. In the morning her first words were, "Light! aunty make 
light ! " pointing up to a corner of the room. I concluded that she 
had seen the light striking there from the candle, which I had set 
on the floor, and wondered if it had seemed to her uncanny. It 
was evident that she had not been too confused in mind to under- 
stand what I was doing. If fear of solitude (which the darkness 
seemed to create about her) had anything to do with her behavior^ 
it vanished by day, for when we went out, she scampered fearlessly 
about the strange premises, preferring to run off alone to long dis- 
tances, without the slightest timidity. 

In the twenty-first month I again had an opportunity to observe 
the night-crying. She was in camp in the redwood forest, and I 
slept two nights in the tent with her mother: the first night she 
waked and cried for almost two hours, clinging to her mother and 
wailing, "Mamma, mamma! " crying outright, quieting, and break- 
ing out again ; her mother said it was her usual behavior in these 
crying fits. The next night she waked when I was alone with her, 
her mother having gone with a lantern to pilot her father across 
the stream from the midnight train. I expected trouble, but she 
allowed herself to be quieted with unusual ease: at first she was 
not altogether satisfied with my assurance that mamma had gone 
to find papa at the choo-choo cars, but the engine fortunately 
whistled at the moment, and she accepted this as evidence, observed 
contentedly, " Bi' b'ow' bea' ! " (Big brown bear, an interesting 
denizen of the little railroad station, whom her father took her often 
to see) and after a little more nestling about, a whimper or two, and 
a few more murmurs of "Mamma!" dropped asleep in my arms, 
her head pillowed on my neck. Waking twice later, she allowed 
herself to be quieted easily by her mother. 

During the last quarter of the year, after the camping trip, there 
seems to have been a good deal of improvement in the matter of 
crying at night, and fretfulness after a nap. The last night of the 
year, as recorded above, her mother ventured to leave her all night, 
and when she awoke in the night she accepted her father instead 
with no great discontent, though she cried a little for her mother. 

The crying fits did not cease entirely, however, even in the third 
year. The first time that she was left entirely to me at night, after 
going readily to bed in my charge, as related above, she waked im 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 287 

a couple of hours, crying wildly, — not for her mother, nor with 
any discernible cause. She would make no answer to questions, 
would cry and fall asleep, wake in five minutes and cry again, 
shedding copious tears. There were perhaps four such spells, in 
one of which she groped about and sobbed for "Boo-be' " (Blue- 
bell, the doll), but beyond this she would say nothing but, "No!" 
when asked any question or offered any comfort, — a drink of 
water or even a piece of candy, which she pushed from her mouth. 
At last her grandmother, who had come in, asked if she would 
come and be rocked (a way of going to sleep that she had gladly 
given up months before), and she put out her arms and went readily, 
and soon dropped asleep, but sobbed in her sleep for twenty min- 
utes or more. She seemed half asleep all the time, and only 
opened her eyes once. On one other night, during a week that 
she slept beside me at the end of the twenty-fifth month, she 
waked crying this way, but was easily soothed. On both these 
occasions she had had no nap during the day. On the other 
nights, though she waked from time to time, she showed no fear or 
trouble. 

In the middle of the twenty-sixth month, she slept beside me 
again for four nights. The first night, she cried once on waking, 
but quieted as soon as I took her into bed with me; the second, she 
roused repeatedly, not waking, but with a whimpering cry in her 
sleep. In the morning, she waked with crying, and I noticed that 
the first cry was before she waked, so far as I could determine; so 
that it was impossible to attribute her distress to fear, or sense of 
loneliness, in finding herself awake before she realized that she was 
with some one.' She cried several minutes, till I had diverted her 
with cheerful talk, about the little birds. The next night she slept 
about eleven hours and a hal f without really waking; she roused 

iSuch wild and unaccountable crying at night is attributed by medical 
writers to "night-terror," akin to nightmare, due to sensations of suffocation 
from impeded circulation; and such a cause - or perhaps more general dis- 
comfort of sensation - would account well enough for the kind of feeling now 
shown- but it did not appear to be in any proper sense terror, — rather a 
completely diffused dntress, which she herself was unable to refer to any 
grievance Fear would have been more readily relieved by companionship, 
for instance. It is not easy in describing it to define differences, but it seemed 
quite clear to me that there was now, at least, however it had been earlier, no 
discernible element of fear. 



288 University of California. [Vol. i, 

and murmured "Aunty! " two or three times, or uttered a slight 
whimper, but when I put my hand on her, or spoke encouragingly, 
she dropped off at once. Waking in the morning, she sat up and 
looked about her silently, then cried out that she heard a little bird. 
She was perfectly sunny and happy. The next four mornings, her 
mother told me, her first word on waking was that she heard a 
little bird, or that the little birds had waked up and gone to find 
some seeds for their breakfast. 

At the end of the thirtieth month she slept beside me for five 
nights. The first night she slept through without waking, and in 
the morning opened her eyes, looked at me, lay silent for some 
minutes, apparently perfectly content, then hearing a quail call, — 
"Aunty, the little birdies are waked up ! " She declined to come 
into my bed, and after talking a little of birds, lay quiet and happy 
in her own bed till time for her bath. In the succeeding nights 
she several times cried on waking, without perceptible cause; once 
with heavy sobbing aloud; but she was always easily quieted. 

I find no record of exceptional timidity and trouble at night 
after this, and though even in her seventh year there have been 
cases of night crying, it has been quite clearly referable to dreams 
or unpleasant thoughts. The liability at night to the recur- 
rence of unpleasant or terrifying imagery from anything heard 
during the day has been quite noticeable. She is not at all a timid 
child, and likes stories to be very sensational by day, but some- 
times has unpleasant recurrences of them at night: "I am not 
afraid, but it is very disagreeable',' she says. 

Two curious instances are recorded of bewildered crying, simi- 
lar to that which was common on waking, but in the period just 
preceding sleep. In the last week of the twenty-seventh month, as 
I have mentioned above, she had gone very cheerfully to bed in my 
care when her mother was going out for the evening, but on her 
mother's coming in to kiss her goodnight in bed, began to cry for 
her, and cried hard. After being quieted once or twice and break- 
ing out again, she began to beg wildly that I would dress her and 
take her downstairs; she was very sleepy and bewildered, and in 
trying to get out of bed scrambled blindly against the head of the 
bed, and tried to climb it; she had ceased to cry for her mother 
and cried only to be dressed. At last I took her from the bed, 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 289 

rolled her in a quilt, and sat down by the window with her, 
showing her the moon, and she quieted and dropped to sleep in my 
arms. Twice during the evening she waked again crying for her 
mother, but was easily quieted. In the latter part of the twenty- 
eighth month occurred a still more curious incident; her mother 
came home on a late train, after her bedtime, but she was allowed 
to stay out of bed till she came; when her m.other came in and 
took her in her arms, the child, who had asked for her several times, 
began to whimper and cling to her, saying, "I want my mamma!" 
and when put to bed, got to crying hard, saying she wanted her 
mamma, even when her mother held her in arms, and cried most of 
the time for two hours, then dropped asleep, but waked every half 
hour or so and cried. Such an incident seems to suggest that in 
apparent crying for her mother at night, the grievance may be a 
sort of symbol, a vague expression of feelings of loneliness and 
timidity which she does not understand. Her condition of health 
was not quite perfect, which would increase her normal suscepti- 
bility to such emotions at the time of sleep ; or it is possible she 
was affected by the knowledge that her mother was going away on 
the morrow for a few days, though she had not seemed to mind it 
at the time she was told. 

In the third as in the second year, the feeling of peculiar 
dependence on her mother seemed connected with the time of 
waking, rather than of going to sleep. The first two mornings that 
she slept beside me, she cried for her on waking, though she had 
not missed her on going to bed, nor in the night; the third morn- 
ing she asked for her, but quite resignedly. The other mornings 
of this sojourn she waked cheerfully, without talking of her mother: 
once her first thought was to greet her doll joyously; another 
morning, as it grew dimly light, instead of calling my name, she 
crept over close to my bed and put her hand on my cheek, and 
when I waked and spoke, clung about my neck, patting my hair, — 
showing by this unusual demonstrativeness the feeling of special 
need of companionship in the waking hour. Once in this week 
she waked crying from a short nap, and coming to the foot of the 
stairs, begged and called, "Aunty, come down !" In most instances 
she accepted me thus readily as a substitute for her mother even on 
waking, but not as easily, on the whole, as in going to bed. During 



290 University of CcJifornia. [Vol. i. 

her second stay with me she waked once toward morning and cried 
for her mother a long time. She would chat happily with me 
about the little birds, etc., but begin to cry when she thought of 
her mother. There was perhaps a little upset of digestion that 
increased her sensibility. An incident later in this month showed 
how deep an association of desolation she had with the idea of 
waking up and crying in vain for mamma : a book had been given 
her in which was a little picture story of a baby who waked up and 
cried in her mother's absence and was cleverly tended by a little 
dog. Instead of being pleased, she found it deeply pathetic, put up 
her lip and nearly cried over it, — a striking sensibility, as she was 
hardly at all susceptible to imaginative sympathy. Hearing me tell 
her mother of it, she almost cried again, repeating, "Mamma, baby 
did wake up and cry, and mamma didn't come!" 

During an absence of her mother at the end of the twenty- 
eighth month, she cried bitterly for her the first night, but was 
soon talked quiet and asleep; the next night she fretted very little 
for her. The first morning, on waking, she looked at me till she 
was satisfied it was I, then sat up and looked anxiously beyond me 
in the bed, and seeing no one there, began to cry for her mother. 
I lifted her into bed with me, and she climbed over me and exam- 
ined, to make sure there was no mother there, and then broke out 
afresh; the next morning she cried a little for her mother on 
waking, but was easily diverted. The five nights that she was with 
me at the end of the thirtieth month, there was no crying at all for 
her mother. The next time, in the latter part of the thirty-second 
month, she once murmured, "Mamma!" longingly in the night. 
After this she became quite accustomed to accepting me at night, 
from time to time. 

It was only in connection with sleep, especially with the waking 
from sleep, that an insistent sense of need for the mother seemed 
to be felt during her absences. During the day, she was occasionally 
asked for rather wistfully, but not greatly missed on the whole. 

From the first time the child slept beside me, I had accustomed 
her to as much darkness as possible, shutting out even half-light 
while she went to sleep, though staying close beside her. She had 
been used to going to sleep with a light in the room, and as early 
as the eleventh month had refused to go to sleep in the dark. She 



shinn.] The Developjnent of a Child. 29 1 

now soon became reconciled to it, however, and the first night of 
her second sojourn with me she objected to my hghting the candle 
if she waked in the night, and wanted it put out: "Make dark, 
aunty, make dark ! " The next night she asked to have it made 
perfectly dark when I put her to bed. In the first week of the 
twenty-seventh month she slept beside me for two nights, and 
insisted on my blowing out the candle as soon as possible, declar- 
ing, "I like dark!" Both nights she seemed anxious all night to 
get as close to me as possible, creeping into my arms, pressing her 
face to mine, tangling her fingers in my hair. The second night 
she came creeping into my bed in the night; I laid her back in her 
crib as soon as she was asleep, but she would from time to time 
rouse and begin to cry, and I would find her pressing toward me 
till she bumped her nose against the side of her crib, and when I 
would lean over to her, she would cling about my neck till asleep, 
stirring even half asleep and clinging tighter if I moved. In the 
thirty-second month, she objected to being left alone in the dark 
while I got her a drink, and wanted the candle lit during my brief 
absence from the room. 

I have been carried far afield by this subject; and the fact that 
I have been, makes in favor of the belief I have mentioned, that the 
roots of the emotional relation between mother and child are struck 
mainly in the association of her with the vaguely but intensely sus- 
ceptible states that border on sleep. I have been unable to exclude 
a good many notes that concern the emotions, especially fear and 
affection. No such wide relations belong to the subject of Hunger, 
for instance: the mother as the source of food does not record her- 
self in the baby's nervous system in any such manner, to my obser- 
vation, as the mother as companion and refuge in the valley of the 
shadow of sleep. The very marked increase in my niece's affection 
for her mother and longing for her at night, visible about the 
twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth months, was coincident with the 
placing of her crib close beside the mother's bed, and the free 
climbing over and clinging to her. The first keen imaginative 
sympathy with an emotion took its root in this region of experience. 
And the more closely I watched and tried to interpret the child's 
conditions of sensibility at night, the more striking seemed to me 
the analogy between them and some of our own most deep-seated 
20 



292 University of California. [Vol. i. 

and poetic, but vague, emotions, — an analogy, indeed, more or 
less recognized always in literature.^ 

A few more definite indications were noted as to the extent or 
kind of confusion in sense and memory that accompanied the 
waking moments. Once in the nineteenth month, the child in 
waking rolled off a narrow lounge, head first, and stood on her 
head a second : I had sat by her, somewhat expecting it, and had 
her in arms at once, and I do not think she took her brief inversion 
into consciousness at all. I have already told under the head of 
Color the incident of her returning asleep after an absence of six and 
a half days, in the twenty-fifth month, waking, and murmuring 
half asleep as her eyes rested on me that I had on my brown dress ; 
then, looking at her mother, "Mamma, you need other dress" (f. e., 
want it, choose it, have it on, — you have changed your dress). 
When she slept with me I did not, even from the first time, notice 
any confusion or difficulty in locating herself on waking: after the 
first two nights, she would murmur, "Aunty!" at once when she 
woke, or even when half asleep; and going back to her mother, she 
went back without a single slip to "Mamma!" the instant of waking. 

In the twenty-sixth month, her father and mother, returning 
from a two days' excursion, changed cars while she was asleep, and 
I, chancing to take the train, saw her wake up in these changed 
surroundings. She sat up, staring about her wildly, and into my 
face as I sat opposite, without a sign of interest or recognition, 
much as if I had been a bedpost; threw herself back on her 
mother's neck, sat up again, and so several times, gradually waking; 
finally, pointing before her, " Mamma, this is n't our car! " For about 
a half hour she paid no attention to me, had little to say, and 
seemed sleepy; then rather suddenly wished to come to me, and 
flung her arms around my neck with much affection, — possibly 
remembering suddenly that she had not seen me for two days. At 
what point she recognized me, or whether she did so from the first, 
she gave no indication. I often saw her wake after a nap and stare 

^The familiar quotation from In Menioriain occurs at once to every reader: 

But what am I ? 
An infant crying in the night, — 
An infant crying for the light, — 
And with no language but a cry. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 293 

wildly around. Other instances of gradual or confused waking 
occur above. 

In the twenty-eighth month occurred something that seemed to 
show that sleep obliterated memory of the immediately preceding 
time to a considerable extent : the child had spent the evening at a 
Christmas tree, but the next morning she could recall nothing of the 
evening, covering more than two hours before she went to sleep. 
Some fragments of it could be recovered by questioning, but most 
of it was gone. The whole two hours had fallen after her usual 
bedtime, and during a good part of it she had been tired and 
sleepy, but she had shown some enjoyment and interest. Some 
months later, she went to sleep on the way home from, the Park, 
but when some one asked her immediately on waking what she 
had seen at the Park, she answered promptly, "You must n't ride 
on the baby donkey," and seemed to remember the whole visit 
pretty clearly. 

A curious illustration of the sense of epochal lapse of time that a 
night's sleep probably gave her was given after she had had a heavy 
fall and bruised her lip terribly. She had been assured during the 
first day that if she was patient it would be better by and by: the 
next morning on waking, she put up her finger to feel the lip, and 
broke into a disappointed wail: "It 's sore yet, mamma! " 

It is probable that her own attention to the idea of sleep began 
quite early, and that she knew in some sort what was to come when 
she first began to show resistance to being put to sleep. Her con- 
sciousness of it, of course, must have been limited to the incipient 
stages and the waking, like any one else's. The directions "go 
bylow," and " go to sleep " were obeyed in the thirteenth month by 
laying her head down as if pretending to go to sleep: and from the 
twelfth month to the eighteenth she was devoted to playing some- 
thing that appeared like a pretense at going to sleep, — laying down 
her head on a cushion or pillow, or perhaps lying down bodily on 
the floor, to pop up laughing; by the fifteenth month she would carry 
a cushion about, and put it on the floor here and there to lie down 
on. In the fifteenth month, if she was told to "sing," she would 
utter a little crooning note or two, and put down her head, as if 
she were being lulled, — singing being associated principally with 
lullabies. 



294 University of California. [Vol. i. 

Toward the end of this month she began to say "By-y!'" when 
she saw the rubber nipple she went to sleep with; and in a few days 
it became evident that the word meant sleep or lie down in quite a 
general way: e. g., as her doll lay on the cushion, — "What is dolly 
doing? " — "By-y," — she is asleep. In the first week of the sixteenth 
month, she said, "Shiee-ee! " on seeing some one yawn. In the seven- 
teenth month, as she trotted about with her favorite play of lying 
down on cushion or floor, she would say, "By-y!" and "shee-ee!" 
(bylow, sleepy) as she laid herself down. Once in this month (489th 
day) she said of an invalid who lay on the lounge all day with his 
books, "G'ee' — by — boo'," (Mr. Greene lies down and has books). 
Again, seventy-third week, seeing the dog lying still, she observed, 
" By ! " In the eighteenth month by and shee were used interchange- 
ably for sleep ; but on the whole by was the regular word, and shee 
oftener meant sleepy; by would be used if she saw the cat or dog 
lying asleep. At twenty months I note, "Aunty wake up," "Cousin 
little Isabel wake up too." In the same week I asked her, " Where 
is that nap Ruth ought to have had? " At first she did not under- 
stand, but when I repeated, "That nap, — ■ when Ruth shuts her 
eyes and goes to sleep, — where is that nap ? " she answered, " Gogn 
way." — "Why, where has it gone?" — "I' be'" (In bed), — and 
in this answer she persisted, declining suggestions that she should 
go to bed to find it. In the twenty-first month she used ''wake up" 
with a clear distinction between transitive and intransitive, "Wa' u' 
owgu!" (Let us go and wake up aunty); " Owgu wa' u'! " (Aunty has 
waked up). 

As late as the seventh month, she did not shut her eyes in play- 
ing at bylow: but in the twenty-first, asked what eyes were for, after 
once answering that they were to look, she said a second time that 
they were to "go by," — to go to sleep. In the twenty-fourth 
month, when her doll's eyes fell out (or in) her only comment, her 
mother told me, was, "Dolly can't go bylow." In the twenty- 
seventh month, coming to me with her doll in her arms, she said 
suddenly, "Aunty, Bluebell does n't go to sleep." — "What, not at 
night?" — " No." — "And does n't little Jenny ? " [her other doll] — 
" No," — very positively, shaking her head. " Why, the birdies go 
to sleep! " I said, intending to lead her to speculate on the difference 
between animate and inanimate things. " Yes." — "And Ruth eoes 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 295 

to sleep." — "Yes." She seemed puzzled, but easily left the subject. 
It is probable that she understood by "sleeping" nothing more than 
closing the eyes : indeed, after the close of the third year, I saw 
some strong indications that this was so. She had thus far had no 
experience of dolls that could shut their eyes. 

Not to separate the subject of Dreaming from that of Sleep, I 
add here the few notes I was able to make concerning Dreams. I 
was not disposed to believe that the child dreamed early, and did 
not attribute such actions as sucking in her sleep (which I saw in 
the fourth month) nor the waking and crying, nor even some whim- 
pering in sleep, to dreams, since it was quite possible that all these 
things were direct results of sensory conditions, without any cerebral 
action. The first distinct evidence of dreaming seen by either the 
mother or myself was in the last week of the fourteenth month 
(423d day), when the child called in her sleep, "Owgng! owgng ! " 
(Aunty). Again in the eighteenth month (535th day), the mother 
told me that the child, waking in the night, had immediately asked, 
"Do!" (Outdoors), — a request hardly comprehensible under the 
circumstances unless suggested by a dream. 

In the first half of the third year I saw no evidence of dreaming, 
but her mother said she undoubtedly dreamed more or less : in the 
thirtieth month she told me that the child, waking in the night, had 
said, "Mamma, Aunty May's little baby can walk!" — "Yes, darling, 
by and by she can walk." — " No, mamma, she can walk now!' 
Other instances were also given me, which I failed to record. 

In the thirty-second month, as the child slept beside me, I heard 
her speak several words clearly (I did not catch what they were), 
and leaned from my bed to see what she wanted, but found she was 
asleep; and as I leaned down, she laughed aloud. The next night, 
when to all appearance asleep, she suddenly said distinctly, "Pi-ta- 
toes," — a pause, then, "No, not pitatoes, pe-ta-toes." Here was 
clearly dreaming, but whether it was rare or customary, I could 
form no idea, nor whether she remembered and believed in the 
dreams. 

At some time within a week after this must have occurred a 
dream that gave light on the last point, — a dream about a bull, of 
which she had become slightly afraid. She murmured something 



296 University of California. [Vol. i- 

about him in the night; and when next she came to my room to 
sleep (thirty-third month), she asked, " Will that old bull come here 
to-night, aunty?" When I assured her that bulls never came into 
the house, she insisted that once he did. She talked in her sleep 
that night, but I could not catch the words. In the thirty-fifth 
month she still insisted that the bull came one night to that room, 
and had it a good deal on her mind in going to bed the first night 
of each sojourn with me. Indeed, as late as the thirty-seventh 
month she still recurred to it, saying, "Once there was an old bull 
up here, aunty," but was now easily shaken in the idea. I tried to 
explain to her something of what a dream was, but I have no idea 
that she understood at all. I never saw her show any curiosity 
about her dreams. That of the bull was probably remembered only 
because it blended with certain waking memories, merely distorting 
them a little (it is likely that without such backing her dreams were 
too filmy and fragmentary for memory): the bull had, in fact, 
rushed up on the veranda, trying to escape from the men that were 

leading him.^ 

Dreaming in the 4th-6th Years. 

I append here my notes on Dreams during the next three years: — 
One night in the 37th month the child several times laughed aloud very 
merrily in her sleep. The next night she waked and asked, "Has my mamma 
come ? " — "Not yet," I said. — "But I saw her ! " said the child; and repeated 
it once or twice in a puzzled way. The next morning I asked her about it; 
did she think she saw her mamma last night? and where? "Coming in at the 
door," she said. It was evident that she was not romancing at all, and was 
still unable to distinguish between the dream and reality. 

About two weeks later, in the 38th month, the mother told me that waking 
from sleep the child had said to her, "I killed it, mamma ! " — "Killed what?" 
— "De bad sing. I killed it wiv dis," holding up her little empty hand; then 
dropped off to sleep again. She showed no sign of fear. Early in the 41st 
month, however, she waked in the night and scrambled desperately into bed 
with her mother, and refused to be put back into her crib, saying there were 
bad men in the room, — papa said so. She scrambled over to her father and 
clung tightly to him. In the morning she had forgotten all about it, and was 
sunny and bold as ever. 

In the 48th month, waking in the night, she asked, "Ma ! — How do you 
think Thad kills mice?" — "How?" — " He pulls their teeth out." A pause, 

^ The first indication of dreaming in the case of Mrs. Chapman's boy was in 
the latter part of the 12th month, when toward morning he rolled over in a 
light sleep, murmuring, "boom, boom," (book). He then settled down in a 
deeper sleep. 



Shinn.1 The Developnieiit of a Child. 297 

then, "Once Margie and I saw a Jap kill a mouse that way." — "No, you 
did n't," said her mother. — "Yes, we did/'* insisted the child. — " No, you 
inever saw any one kill a mouse that way." — "No, not that way, but we saw a 
Jap kill a mouse by stepping on it." After a pause: "Mice do lots of harmness, 
don't they, ma?" 

, Here was probably a combination of dream and distorted memory. It is 
likely that her playmate, Margie, had told her of the killing of the mouse by 
the Japanese; I could not find that she had ever had any opportunity to see 
anything of the sort; and there was no Japanese workman on the farm. In all 
these dreams of the fourth year the influence of waking experience was more 
or less traceable. The gruesome nature of some of them corresponded to 
some timidity that during this year developed in waking hours, beginning with 
her fear of the bull at three years. She did not yet seem to understand the 
illusory nature of dreams, though they vanished readily from her memory with 
daylight, with the exception of the one about the bull. 

Early in the fifth year, however, she began to tell of her dreams, and in a 
way that showed she understood them to be illusory. Those she told were 
quite commonplace: e. g., she dreamed she saw an old woman driving a 
turkey; she dreamed she saw the cars go by, right along our carriage drive, — 
an incongruity which she laughed at; she dreamed she saw a gull fly into the 
cabin of the ferry-boat. She had often seen the gulls iiying around the boat. 
These dreams were all in the 50th month; and in the last week of the month 
she dreamed she had a trumpet, and aunty took it away from her and put the 
end in the fire; she began to cry, and aunty took it out and showed her it was 
not hurt, — it was only a joke. Where she got the idea of an unkind joke I 
could not tell, — certainly from nothing in her own experience. 

In the 53d month she told us that she dreamed some soldiers came, and 
they were going to kill her, because they said she was going to steal something. 
"And I said, * I don't want to take any of the dried fruit,' so they let me go." 
She had been at the fruit-drying establishment the day before, and had asked 
for some fruit: possibly some thought of less lawful means of obtaining it had 
crossed her mind and colored her dream. During the great railroad strike, 
half a year before, she had seen squads of soldiers sent out to keep the peace, 
and had stood in some fear of them. She seemed troubled by this dream, and 
complained a week later that she kept thinking of it. 

In the 54th month she related that she dreamed there was a pen full of 
squashes, and she was looking over at the squashes, and she saw a big black 
snake among them, — just the tip of his tail sticking out; and she knew if she 
got on his back and kicked him with her heels, he would give her a ride; so 
she got on his back and kicked him, and he gave her a ride, clear up to the 
cherry trees. I suspect that Mowgli's friend, Kaa, must have been the original 
of this accommodating snake, but cannot identify exactly enough the date at 
which she made Kaa's acquaintance to connect him definitely with the dream. 
Her first snake acquaintance, Nag, in Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, was not at all likely to 
inspire such a dream. 

When a little over five and a half years old (67 months) she waked whimper- 
ing a little, said she had had a bad dream, and asked to sleep with me till 



298 University of California. [Vol. i. 

morning: she said if she got back into her own bed she would think about it. 
In the morning I asked her about the dream. She said she dreamed there 
were some green ants with a kind of clubs, and one of them hit mamma's head 
and knocked it off; then she [the child] begged them not to kill her, and they 
did n't; and she begged them to put mamma's head on again, and at last they 
did, and mamma was all right. 

This dream seemed so probably due to fairy tales that she was told we must 
have no more except gentle and pleasant tales at bedtime. The child's firm 
nerves and unexcitable imagination had led to a good deal of carelessness in 
this matter, and for months she had had such stories as she asked for — often 
Grimm's tales — at the bedtime hour, without showing any ill effect till now. 
The change to milder ones effected, she twice again dreamed: once somethmg 
commonplace, which escaped my memory before I could record it; and once 
that there was a pond in the garden, and she and mamma went out on a tongue 
of land that extended into it, and picked flowers happily. This dream was 
quite accordant in spirit with the stories I had been telling her at bedtime. 

I watched her dreaming for some time, but except on these two occasions she 
said she did not dream at all; and this was, as far as I could ascertain, the rule. 
Up to seven years old, she insists that she hardly ever dreams, and now and 
then mentions having had a dream as a rare and interesting occurrence. Yet I 
think it probable that some drifting images occupy her sleep, or at least that 
her consciousness does not sink below the level at which lapse of time can be 
perceived; for once, late in the seventh year, she was greatly surprised on 
waking without having had this sense of the passage of time, and exclaimed 
over and over, "I thought I had just gone to sleep, and the very next minute I 
was awake and it was morning ! " She must have had this consciousness of 
lapse of time during sleep even in the third year (p. 293, above). But that 
dreaming has always been rare I feel sure. I have on inquiry been told 
repeatedly by people of more physical than mental activity that they scarcely 
ever dreamed. It is likely that in primitive times dreaming was quite rare, 
which would naturally tend to enhance its mysterious significance. 

I was well satisfied that my niece never at any time invented dreams; nor 
after she was four years old did she ever confuse them, that I could detect, 
with waking thoughts or memories. At seven years old she can even dis- 
tinguish between a dream and waking imagery in the middle of the night. At 
this age she waked me one night by a cry that brought me quickly to her side. 
She seemed annoyed and abashed when she found me by her, and would not 
tell me what was the matter; and when I asked if it was a bad dream, said she 
did not think so, — only thoughts. She would not come into my bed. In the 
morning, however, she consented to explain: it was black cats, she said; she 
kept thinking of them, as if the air was full of them; it was n't a dream, only 
thoughts; and she thought perhaps if she called out, it would make them go 
away. A more imaginative child, doubtless, would have experienced far more 
confusion between dreams, subjective imagery, and realities. 



SPONTANEOUS MOVEMENTS. 

The typical movements of this class are those vague and un- 
co-ordinated ones which appear in the new-born child (indeed, as 
Preyer points out, they are only continuations of intra-uterine 
movements), and which seem to be entirely aimless, unadaptive, 
and independent of peripheral stimulus. Preyer gives them the 
name of " Impulsive " movements, but the word " Impulsive " is 
used by English psychological writers in so different a sense that I 
prefer the one used by Bain, and adopted by Baldwin and Mrs. 
Moore, viz., "Spontaneous." The description of these movements 
given by Preyer corresponds with my own observations. He attrib- 
utes them to random jets of energy disengaged by the mere growth 
of the lower motor centres : and they seem to me of such character 
as to be reasonably accounted for by this theory. Although I have 
called them entirely unadaptive, there is (as Preyer points out) one 
consistent tendency in them, viz., toward the resumption of the 
pre-natal position : but this does not in any way conflict with his 
theory of their origin, since the motor energy, disengaged without 
any guidance, would naturally find oftenest the channels already' 
somewhat worn, so to speak. 

I have already given, under the head of Muscular Sensation, 
(pp. 179, 180) my observations concerning the purely soontaneous 
movements, and the manner of their inhibition by more adaptive 
ones. By the end of the first three months I had ceased to see any 
movements that I thought purely spontaneous.^ There were, 
however, movements of a mixed or transitional character, which 
are best classed here. 

In the first place, I observed that of the meaningless movements 
made by the baby from the earliest days, some appeared to be 

iSome movements that might perhaps have been put in this category, I 
accounted for otherwise : the baby's flourishing of her rattle, and kicking out 
her legs as she lay on her mother's lap, I thought voluntary, for pure pleasure 
in muscular activity; wriggling when measured (92d day), a definite expression 
of discomfort; the vague fumbling movements that preceded grasping, primi- 
tive efforts to exercise active touch. Preyer thinks many of the early vocal 
sounds must be classed as "impulsive." 

(299) 



300 University of California. [Vol. i. 

connected with slight variations in general sensation, and therefore 
were not of entirely central initiation. The facial grimaces and 
movements of the head seemed to be stimulated by faint discomfort, 
and the movements of the arms and legs by heightened general 
comfort. During the first months the irregular movements of eyes 
and limbs were always increased in the bath, and asymmetric eye- 
movements were seen there after they had ceased under other con- 
ditions. These irregular muscular contractions and relaxations are 
not to be taken (as Preyer points out) for true expressions of joy 
or discomfort, although the latter are for a time not easily dis- 
tinguished from them. After the first six weeks, however, the 
usual expressive movements took on a definite and recognizable 
character. There still remained, however, instances of the mixed 
or transitional class of movements. Thus in the sixth week, when 
the baby was looking with most intentness at anything, she would 
pant in short, audible breaths, and make movements with her hands, 
— movements quite different from the ordinary flourishing of arms 
in expression of joy and excitement, and less co-ordinated than this; 
I saw these vaguer movements as late as the 8oth day. In the 
seventh week, when in the bath, she moved her head from side to 
side all the time as she held it up, breathed rapidly, and pushed her 
feet against the foot of the tub ; and while wiped made articulate 
noises, panting, her head turning from side to side, and arms and 
legs moving gently. The 47th day I took her up when she was 
crying for hunger, and noticed that she was doubling up and stiffen- 
ing her body, — a movement that I never noticed at any other 
time. All these movements (excepting the pressure of the feet 
against the tub and perhaps the doubling up of the body), seem 
to have been due to an irregular overflow of general stimulus 
from sensation, and differed from several of the ordinary ex- 
pressive movements only because the latter were better co- 
ordinated, and were regularly associated, each with its usual 
stimulus of feeling.^ Such irregular expressions of feeling — over- 
flows, so to speak, above the normal methods of expression — 
continue even in adult life: in extreme pain or mental distress, e. g., 

^ In this regular association of the movement with the feeling, not only in 
the same infant at different times, but in different infants, we see evidence of 
an inherited, instinctive character even in very simple expressive movements. 



Shinn.j The Development of a Child. 301 

all sorts of random movements — tossing the hand about, twisting 
the trunk, etc. — are resorted to by excitable persons to carry off 
the pressure on the nerve-centers. So too in annoyance, im- 
patience, sometimes even in delight, various slight movements, 
as tapping with the feet, twisting the fingers, etc., are used for 
like purpose. The variety of movements used by the little child 
to work off a high pressure of spirits is illustrated in some of 
my notes under General Sensation (pp. 240, 242, 251). Such 
movements in adult life are to a certain extent conscious and volun- 
tary, but not always; and they are never entirely uncoordinated, 
for wath the increased definiteness of nerve-channels by this time, 
it would be impossible that the most random jets of energy should 
produce altogether uncoordinated movement. Even at two or 
three years old, and in sleep, the tossing and tumbling of a child 
(movements that are to a considerable extent spontaneous, though 
doubtless stimulated more or less by pressure of bedclothes, fatigue 
in one position, etc.) are more co-ordinated than the ordinary 
waking movements of a baby in the first two or three weeks: the 
accustomed groups of muscles work together in turning the body 
over, for instance, — a co-operation that never by any chance 
comes about in the earliest weeks. 

Movements resulting from an excess of voluntary motor stim- 
ulus above what is necessary for the accomplishment of the action 
willed, so that a secondary action (involuntary and unadaptive) 
results, are a different class of the same general type as those 
just considered. Preyer calls them "accompanying" movements. 
Some curious jerkings and turnings of the head in the ninth week, 
associated with the effort to balance it, might have been of this 
class (see p. 327, note); the wild fluttering of the hands in sympathy 
when the baby was trying to reach an object with her lips (Grasp- 
ing, p. 316) is a good instance.^ 

^ Accompanying movements in which there is any sort of adaptation, even 
of an irrational sort, as when a singer lifts the brows in reaching a high note, 
do not seem to me properly to be classed here. Such are the movements of 
keeping time to music, or crooning in listening to it (pp. 123-4), and the sympa- 
thetic doubling up of the body when a dive was made with the head for the 
purpose of seizing (p. 316) ; a similar doubling up of the body, also, which 
occurred when the baby was amusing herself by making vocal sounds, in the 
twentieth week, — she would suddenly jump at a sound, so to speak. It is 



202 University of California. [Vol. i, 

not always easy to determine whether an accompanying movement is due 
to a mere bhnd overflow of motor stimulus, or whether it is connected with 
the primary movement by consistent associations : but in proportion as they 
are found habitually occurring together it must be concluded that the con- 
nection is not a random one, and the movement is not properly to be called 
spontaneous. This distinction is parallel to the one I have suggested above 
between movements that are consistently associated as expressions with certain 
states of feeling, and those that merely express vaguely a heightened general 
excitability in the motor centers. 



REFLEX MOVEMENTS. 

Under this head Professor Preyer classes all movements that 
follow immediately upon peripheral sensation without the necessity 
of any central action, and along well-established paths. I made no 
especial effort to keep record of such movements, believing that to 
do so intelligently required more special physiological knowledge 
than I had, A few notes of the common reflexes were taken 
incidentally. Sneezing occurred at birth, and crying soon after; 
swallowing also on the first day; starting (at a sound) on the 3d or 
4th day; winking on the 23d; hiccoughing on the 28th; coughing 
on the 42d. Yawning also is mentioned on the 42d day, but with 
the implication that it had been seen earlier : on this day, waking 
from a long nap, the baby yawned, stretched, and seemed to be 
rubbing her fists into her eyes, in a comically grown-up mannei*. 
Choking (in nursing) appeared early, but I have not the exact 
date, — certainly by the middle of the third month. Closing the 
hand on an object laid in the palm was also very early, — I believe 
from the first, though my record does not show it. 

All these movements were as complete and co-ordinated as 
with any adult, the first time they were performed: yet it cannot 
be said in the case of all that the mechanism seemed to be at birth 
in perfect order and ready to work at the touch of the appropri- 
ate stimulus. Sneezing, swallowing, crying, starting, and perhaps 
choking, were the only ones of which this could be said; and even 
crying was not the more complex performance of later infancy, 
but a mere monotonous, repeated sound, rather a bleat than true 
human crying. Winking could not be induced in the first three 
weeks: sudden sounds caused either no reaction at all or a general 
start throughout the body, but never winking; in strong light the 
eyes were held tightly closed, but there was no winking; and as 
already noticed, a threat at the eyes produced no movement of the 
lids before the 56th day. This was of course partly due to the 
imperfect condition of sight and hearing, so that the proper sen- 
sory stimulus was not yet applied; but the reflex mechanism itself 
was also deficient, for the earliest winking responses were usually 

(303) 



304 University of California. [Vol, i. 

remarkably slow. The variability of this response (as well as that 
of starting) after sound stimuli was probably due to variable sensi- 
bility to sounds, not to defects in the reflex mechanism (Hearing, 
pp. 107-8); when first seen in connection with visual stimuli the 
wink followed regularly, though slowly. In the case of hiccough- 
ing, coughing, and yawning, also, it seems probable that the condi- 
tions which caused the movements did not occur for the first time 
when the reactions first appeared. 

The yawn in the second month was always ended with a com- 
ical little throat-scraping sound, which I do not remember to have 
heard from any older person in yawning. 

Early in the fourth month the baby became able to produce a 
cough voluntarily, but not by imitation of the natural cough; it 
seemed to be merely a sound hit upon independently in the course 
of experiments with the vocal organs. 

The movement of rubbing the fists in the eyes, which I noticed 
(together with stretching and yawning, see above) as early as the 
seventh week, is noteworthy: for I am certain that with this excep- 
tion the hand was never in the early months carried to the spot of 
any peripheral sensation. It must have been a purely reflex move- 
ment, for it was not before the tenth week that the hands were 
voluntarily guided to the mouth; and it seems odd that so unim- 
portant reflexes as these should appear so early in a perfectly 
developed and remarkably complex group. The perfection and 
maturity of the movements were noticeable to the most casual 
observation, and had, as I have intimated, a comical precocity of 
appearance in so tiny a baby, — out of keeping with the rest of her 
behavior. Rubbing her eyes was repeatedly noticed afterward, but 
not stretching. 

Other and less habitual reflex movements in the early months, 
have been noted under other heads, but may be repeated here/ 
On the 23d day the arm was once flung out at a sudden sound (the 
regular response being a wink or start); and in the last week of 
the third month, when I kissed the baby's hand suddenly, the little 
hand flew up as if a spring had been set off. Possibly the earliest 
smile for a specific cause was a reflex (it was excited by rubbing 

^ The remarkable turning of the head toward an interruption of the light,, 
from the first day, is considered in the discussion at the end of these notes. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 3^5 

the upper lip), but I thought that it merely expressed pleasure, as 
smiles noted in the next two days undoubtedly did; it certainly 
was not a reaction following " along a well-established path." The 
grimace excited by novel sensations of taste (p. i6o), was also an 
expression of emotion — that of surprise — but had much of the 
quality of a reflex. It is hard to say whether pushing with the 
feet against a surface that touches the soles (pp. i8o, 189) is to be 
regarded as a reflex or a voluntary movement. The I2ist day, 
when the baby was listening to music, and already in an excited 
nervous condition, I could feel her start and thrill in my arms 
every time a strong chord was struck or a vocal note accented 
heavily. 

Reflexes were quite readily inhibited by diversion of attention: 
see under Hearing (p. 107) the failure to react to the stroke of a 
bell when nursing, 23d day; and the power of the piano and other 
diversions to check crying (pp. 108, 115, 149), from the second 
month on. Even sneezing could be thus checked, from the eleventh 
month: this was first seen on the 316th day, when some one mim- 
icked the baby as she was about to sneeze, and made her stop and 
smile, losing the sneeze, exactly as it might have happened with a 
grown person. In this case, however, the diversion of attention 
may not have had so much to do with checking the sneeze as the 
movement of the lips in smiling. 



INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS/ 
Grasping. 

From the first the baby would close her fingers, like all babies, 
on any small object laid in her palm; and the tendency of her 
hands to move upward, about her head and face (see p. 299), 
looked somewhat like an effort to reach her mouth; but these early 
movements must be set down as quite involuntary, as the later 
slow development of the same acts under volitional control shows. 
Neither intentional holding of an object, nor intentional seeking of 
the mouth with the hands, was seen before the third month, with 
the remarkable exception about to be related: — 

On the 48th day, just after nursing, the baby lay in her mother's 
lap looking about, quiet and contented. I laid a pencil some three 
inches long in her hand, intending to see whether there was yet 
any indication of consciousness and purpose in holding. The hand 
closed on it at once (the thumb correctly reversed) and carried the 
pencil to the mouth. I had no idea that this could be more than 
accident, but pushed the hand away from the neighborhood of the 

^ I am quite aware of the difficulties of definition that surround the use of 
the word Instinct, and the uncertainty of the line between instinctive and reflex 
actions on the one side, and instinctive actions and personal habits on the other. 
It certainly seems a doubtful classification that separates a simple and primitive 
act like sucking from another simple and primitive act like swallowing, and 
puts it into the same class with walking, which the child inherits only as a 
tendency, and actually learns with as much individual effort as an adult employs 
in learning to use the bicycle. Sucking, biting, and licking plainly resemble 
the instincts of the lower animals, as the pecking of newly-hatched chickens, 
the standing of the new-born calf: they are inherited ready-made. The loco- 
motor movements and grasping, on the other hand, approach the character of 
an individual acquirement that speaking possesses, — the one step that sepa- 
rates them being the necessity of a model of language to imitate before speech 
can be acquired, while we feel sure that an absolutely isolated child would 
begin to grasp and to walk when the time came. Yet this one step is, I think, 
the significant one. The locomotor movements are not only the same ones — 
homologous in nature — with those that we recognize as instinctive in the lower 
animals, but also they are not in a broad sense volitional and individual: 
though individual intelligence and volition attend their acquisition to a quite 
(306) 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 307 

face, lest the pencil-point should do harm in some aimless move- 
ment. To my surprise the baby six times carried the pencil directly 
back as I pushed it away; and as she did so she put out her lips 
and tongue toward it eagerly, with sucking motions, much as when 
about to be put to the breast, — looking, as was her habit when 
put to the breast, not at the object but vaguely before her. She 
held the pencil firmly for about three minutes, then her attention 
seemed to wander from it and her fingers relaxed. I could not get 
any repetition of the incident, either with that hand or the other: 
her fingers would close on it as always, but without attention, and 
would soon relax. It was weeks before the least attempt to carry 
the hands to the mouth could be detected again. Yet it seemed 
impossible to doubt that there had been an effort to do so on this 
occasion. I could only suppose that the first upward movement 
had been mere chance, but that the hand or pencil-tip had barely 
touched the baby's lips before I pushed it away, and that the asso- 
ciation of this sensation with the muscular movement of the arm 
lasted long enough to induce the half-dozen immediate repetitions 
of the movement, but not long enough to create any fixed associa- 
tion group. 

It is evident that the hand as an organ of grasping was not 
concerned in this incident, except by the inherited reflex that 

remarkable extent, yet they are as necessary and racial in the child as in the 
calf : every normal child that is born must needs come to them, at about the 
same age and in somewhat similar manner. They have therefore the essential 
characters of instinct, as agreed upon by all different definitions of the word. 
If we find on the one hand very marked instinctive elements in movements 
that are on the whole classed as volitional, and find on the other hand that 
such an action as sucking or biting occupies a ground almost intermediate 
between reflex and instinctive action, so that on either side of the field of 
Instinct some acts might be cut away or added, according to the exact defi- 
nition that one uses, this only shows the more plainly that sharp lines of di- 
vision are not made here by nature, — that the different types of race move- 
ments shade into each other. Even among undoubtedly reflex actions, which 
follow directly upon peripheral stimulus without any interposition of volition, 
perhaps not even of consciousness, according to fixed ancestral arcs of communi- 
cation, there is every grade of volitional infusion into the act : thus, coughing 
and swallowing can be voluntarily produced, but only up to a certain point 
inhibited ; yawning cannot be produced or inhibited by direct volition, but 
is notoriously subject to suggestion, while choking cannot possibly be inhibited 
by any central cause, nor under ordinary conditions suggested. 

21 



308 University of California. [Vol. i. 

enabled it to hold fast the pencil. The mouth, however, was 
already considerably developed as a grasping organ, through its 
primitive function of sucking. From the fourth week the baby, if 
held against one's cheek when she was hungry, would lay hold on 
it with her lips and suck it. Signs of especial tactile sensibility 
in the lips, and even the use of active touch in the tongue, had 
already been noted (Sense of Contact, p. 136), but none in the 
fingers. Blind groping movements with the head when placed at 
the breast, in the fifth week, showed an instinctive disposition to 
co-operation of the neck with the mouth in grasping. 

During the second month I saw further evidence of special tac- 
tile sensibility about the lips and tongue, in the baby's habit when 
not hungry of putting her lips to one's cheek, if she was laid 
against it, and licking it, instead of sucking, as she did when 
hungry. Meanwhile no special sensibility, even passive, appeared 
in the fingers till the beginning of the third month, when the baby 
had a habit of keeping her finger-tips together if they chanced to 
come into contact, as though interested in the sensation. 

By this time — the beginning of the third month — she would 
keep her hands closed for several minutes (the thumb as well as 
the fingers) on a finger laid in the palm, though not on any other 
object. This seemed more like conscious holding, yet as will be 
seen below (p. 310) it was not till late in the month that I saw 
clear evidence of purpose and attention in holding. 

She now began (ninth week) to make efforts to get her hands 
to her mouth. By the tenth week the fists were put to the mouth 
constantly, usually both at once, and whatever parts of them could 
get inside were suclced and mumbled. If they were taken away 
the baby would cany them back. When her hands closed mechan- 
ically on folds of her clothes or of the towel as she was wiped, 
these were carried along with her hands to her mouth and sucked; 
but there was no conscious attempt to carry objects thither. By 
the twelfth week she had learned to get her thumb into her mouth 
whenever she wished, and was fond of sucking it as she lay cozily 
against her mother's shoulder. If she lost it out, she usually tried 
to put her mouth down to it, instead of putting it up to her mouth. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 309 

When she had been diverted from the thumb for a httle while, she 
would recur to it suddenly, making a dive of her head for it, and at 
the same time carrying it upward to meet her mouth. This dive 
for her thumb was her only sudden movement, and very comical, — 
as if she had ejaculated, "Happy thought, — to suck my thumb!" 
The continuance of the movement as late as the fifth month is. 
noted below (p. 316). 

But though the precedence of the mouth as a grasping organ 
was quite evident here, the hands in this same twelfth week came 
rapidly to the front in consciousness, and by the end of the week 
had made visible progress toward grasping. The first sign of this 
was a trick of clasping and unclasping the fingers fumblingly on 
some surface, as one's hand or dress, evidently with intention, — 
an action which I could not attribute to anything but the exercise 
of active feeling, hitherto seen only in lips and tongue. Objects 
placed in the hands were held very firmly, though not looked at. 
The 79th day a large rubber ring, placed in the baby's hand and 
carried with it to her mouth, was held there for a minute or two 
while she mumbled and sucked at it. This approached to con- 
scious holding. The next day, when bright napkin rings were 
rolled across the tray of the high-chair in which the baby was 
propped, she looked at them with eagerness, making indefinite 
motions with her hands, which might have had some sort of antici- 
patory connection with the impulse to seize, but which I regarded 
as merely accompaniments of cerebral tension, since such motions 
were not infrequent in connection with intent interest (see Spon- 
taneous Movement, p. 300). On the 83d day, as the baby sat in 
her high-chair with rattles and other articles lying on the tray of 
the chair, I noticed that she kept fumbling on the tray with her 
hands, and that when she touched an article she would at once 
grasp and raise it, sometimes holding it for half a minute, but 
without looking at it or the hand, or showing any perception that 
the article she felt in her hand was the same that she saw when 
she did chance to glance at it. In picking it up, if it happened to 
touch her fingers conveniently in front, she would clasp it properly ; 
but I noticed once that when the back of her hand came in contact 
with a rattle she had no idea of turning her hand, but got hold of 
the rattle backward between two fingers, and so lifted it. 



3IO University of Calif oriiia. [Vol. r. 

Here was already developed suddenly a sort of hand-grasp- 
ing, — the ability to lay hold upon an object when it was' felt in 
contact with the hand; but it was nearly a month more before 
grasping at a visually located object appeared. In the interval 
steady progress was made in skill and conscious intention in laying 
hold of objects and raising them, and I watched and recorded every 
step of this progress strictly, feeling that it marked the beginning 
of an important epoch of development. 

For some three weeks this progress in grasping all took place 
when the baby was propped in her high-chair and supplied with 
convenient objects on the tray of the chair, where she was doubtless 
already learning to grope for them. During the thirteenth week I 
find almost daily note of more skill in taking hold. On the 86th 
day the baby repeatedly picked up her rattle, which had a slender 
shaft easily grasped; and I noticed that when fretting a moment for 
some reason she did not hold the rattle, but relaxed her grasp 
at once, showing that the holding was now conscious, requiring 
attention. I noticed also that when holding the rattle and flourish- 
ing the arm she no longer flourished the other arm, from which I 
thought there was certainly volition in the action : the rattle was 
no longer merely held while the arms went through the customary 
movements of joy and excitement (in which both arms were always 
used), but was purposely shaken. There may even have been an 
association of this movement with the jingling sound, and a desire 
to produce it. Objects were not yet voluntarily carried to the 
mouth ; but they were frequently brought up into its neighborhood 
by the motions of the arms, and once on this 86th day, when the 
rattle had thus come into the neighborhood of the mouth, I saw 
the baby try to put it in; she had it at right angles to the mouth 
with the rubber nipple on the end almost in', but at this point she 
was interrupted. The next day she not only took up the rattle 
with increased skill and intention when her fingers touched it, and 
shook it as before, but tried unmistakably and repeatedly to carry 
it to her mouth, — thus repeating for the first time the effort made 
with the pencil on the 48th day (p. 307). The shaft was so long that 
she could not get the nipple on its end into her mouth except by 
holding it diagonally ; yet she accomplished it several times, very 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 3 1 1 

clumsily. She fumbled for her mouth, sometimes thrusting the 
rattle against some other part of her face, thence feeling her way 
along with it gradually to the right place; three times she brought 
it up sidewise, so that a ring of little bells with which it was fringed 
touched her lips, when she would draw the little bells in and suck 
them. Her father was unable to resist helping her by placing the 
rattle in her mouth, so I could not judge what she would have 
accomplished if let alone. The difficulty she experienced in finding 
her mouth with it, compared with the ease and directness with 
which she could put her thumb in the desired spot, was noticeable. 

Twice on first grasping the rattle she looked at it seriously for 
some time, but did not appear to connect its visual appearance with 
what she felt in her hand. 

The next day (88th) she took up the rattle readily when her hand 
touched it, and turning the rubber end (probably by chance) toward 
her mouth, lifted it; it struck at the side of her nose about an inch 
above her mouth, and instead of moving the rattle she tried to 
reach it by stretching her mouth wide and moving her head. 
After a few vain efforts of this sort she lowered her hand and made 
a fresh start, — this time hitting her lips, where by stretching her 
mouth again she managed to reach the rubber and get it into her 
mouth, but awkwardly, in her cheek. Again her father could not 
resist coming to her aid, so I could not tell whether she would 
have righted it herself After a little she lost it, then grasped it 
again and brought it to her mouth, this time the other end upper- 
most. This end had instead of the nipple a large sleigh-bell, 
fringed with small ones; and thinking it undesirable for her to 
suck the little bells, her mother took the rattle away to remove 
them, and the baby lost interest and would not renew her efforts 
when the rattle was given back. 

She had a rubber nipple set in an ivory disk, with a movable 
ivory ring on the other side ; this nipple she did not try to put 
into her own mouth, but held and sucked it when it was put 
there by others. This afternoon, having had it put into her mouth, 
she presently, in putting up her hand, got hold of the ring, grasped 
it firmly, and soon accidentally pulled out the nipple. This hap- 
pened repeatedly, and she. also lost it out in trying to laugh or 
shout while holding it. 



312 University of California. [Vol. i. 

During the rest of the thirteenth week the clumsy and rarely 
successful attennpts to get the rattle into her mouth continued. 
Once when she brought the bell end to her mouth, being unable 
to get the bell in as she did the nipple at the other end, she 
began licking it. 

She was now just three months old. Besides the power to 
lay hold on an object that touched her fingers and to carry it 
imperfectly to her mouth, she had showed some voluntary use of 
hands and arms in the effort to pull herself to a sitting position 
when holding with her hands to some one's forefingers, — an 
advanced movement rather difficult to understand at this stage, 
and apparently quite blindly instinctive, for it seems improbable 
that she should have formed any association between this pulling 
movement and the raising of her body; still, her mother had 
often lifted her by the arms in bathing and wiping. She would 
hold the forefingers tight and firm, and pull hard (see p. 328). This 
movement had been made for some weeks. 

I now watched vigilantly for the first sign of any visual guid- 
ance in seizing; but for some time in vain. The baby continued 
to touch objects either by accident, or perhaps by fumbling for them, 
looking in some other direction inattentively; but the object once 
felt, she would seize it with clear intention and carry it to her 
mouth. If by chance her eyes did turn toward the object, it 
was with entire inattention. The 98th day, when pounding first 
with a rattle and then with her hand, with much violence (p. 144), 
she did not once glance at the rattle or hand; a few days before, 
when I kissed her hand suddenly and apparently startled her, 
though the hand flew up sharply (p. 304) she did not look at it; 
about the same time, when a visitor amused her greatly by kissing 
her fingers rapidly, though she smiled and cooed her eyes never 
turned from the lady's face to her own hand. 

On the 99th day I noticed that she several times looked down 
at an object zvhile grasping, but never before she had laid hold, and 
never with any appearance of attention. In the following week, 
(fifteenth) she quite commonly let her eyes rest rather blankly on 
her hands and objects in them after she had fumbled about till she 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 313 

touched an object and while she was Hftingit; then her glance 
would leave it, and it would be carried to her mouth by feeling only. 

By this time her skill in taking things up had considera- 
bly improved: on the 105th day, for instance, I note that 
having brought her hands against a napkin ring that lay be- 
fore her, she took hold of it neatly with both hands, one on 
each side, and tried to lift it. This shows a certain amount of 
co-operation between the hands: yet her understanding of them 
and their relation to her was plainly very slight : if in fumbling for 
an object they chanced to encounter each other, each would grasp 
the other and try to carry it to the mouth. She could carry a 
small object, as a rattle, quite easily to her mouth now ; but was 
still embarrassed in getting it in by any difficulties in its shape; 
she would often then drop the object and resort to the ever- 
convenient thumb or fingers instead, with the same droll sudden- 
ness as before. Often in lifting an object to her mouth she would 
open her mouth in readiness, and sometimes would bend her 
head, — mouth and hands seeking for each other mutually. 

In the sixteenth week her disposition to put things into her 
mouth and her skill in getting them there grew; and she began to 
take hold of objects elsewhere than on her tray: she would clutch 
at people's fingers or at the folds of dresses as her hands touched 
them, and pull them to her mouth. Yet she still understood so 
little the relation of her arms and their movements to the presence 
of objects in her mouth, that she constantly lost the rattle out of her 
mouth by trying to flourish her arms while she held and sucked it. 
She even lost her fingers out in the same way. 

At just sixteen weeks old (113th day), she made a near 
approach to deliberate grasping : she looked at her mother's hand 
held out to her, and while looking made fumbling motions toward 
it with her own hand till she struck it, then seized it and tried to 
carry it to her mouth; and twice again the same day I saw her 
do this. She would not aim a grasp at the object, under visual 
guidance, but would look at it, move her hands vaguely, as if 
feeling for it, then strike them toward it with fingers open till they 
touched; then she would seem to understand what she was about, 
and take hold. She looked more than before at objects held 



314 University of California. [Vol. i. 

in her hand, but still vaguely; and indeed, the whole process had 
a vague and mechanical appearance, as if there were little volition 
about it. The 1 14th day she got hold of a good many objects by 
a kind of vague clawing at them, looking at them more and more 
as she did so. 

But with regard to putting objects once seized into the mouth, 
the volition was clear: as far back as the 96th day her grandmother 
had seen her open her mouth while getting hold of her rattle, and 
now it was common ; she would open her mouth and put her head 
forward as soon as she touched an object, even while fumbling to 
get a good hold, — but never at siglit of it. The 112th day I 
touched her face, and she made many efforts to reach my touching 
finger with her mouth, moving her head to help, but did not lift 
her hand toward it. 

The 1 14th day I tried the experiment of giving her a rattle in 
each hand, and she flourished both happily, though giving most 
attention to the one she had first, in the right hand. Later the 
same day, seeing her in high content, holding one in her left hand, 
flourishing and chewing it, I put another into her right hand : this 
time the division of attention seemed to trouble her ; she made a 
pitiful face and began to fret, and was not happy till the intruding 
rattle was removed. 

The 1 1 8th day occurred the incident that may be called the 
first real grasping, — if it is possible to fix the point in such a 
gradual development. I held the baby up before a picture on the 
wall, which she was accustomed to look at for some seconds with 
interest. The light shining on the walnut frame seemed to catch 
her eye : she looked at it, put out her hand a little uncertainly and 
waveringly, and first touched then took hold of the edge of the 
frame. I then brought her rattle and held it out some two inches 
from her hand : she put out her hand in the same uncertain way 
and took it. In the afternoon she had somewhat relapsed from 
this attainment : when the rattle was offered her she looked at it, 
making some sounds of desire, moved her arms vaguely, and 
finally brought both hands down about it, on either side ; as soon 
as she touched it her movements became definite, and she laid hold 
of it and carried it skilfully to her mouth. This was the way that 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 3 1 5 

at this time she took up articles from her tray, — bringing her 
hands down to them from either side with much uncertainty till 
she touched them; then she would hft napkin ring or spool, rattle 
or rubber doll, quite firmly to her mouth, often with both hands. 
I have seen her hold a napkin ring very nicely at this time, grasping 
the opposite edges with her two hands. 

The next day there was no advance in seizing with the hands, 
but two instances of the more primitive mouth-grasp. The mother 
tried once more to see if the baby, when about to nurse, could find 
the nipple by sight, a thing she had never been able to do 
before; she found it now with lips and head quite easily, at a 
distance of some three inches, looking at it as she did so. In her 
baby-carriage she got her hands out from under cover, and taking 
hold of a fold of her cloak, put it into her mouth. As the day was 
cold I put the hands back under cover ; when the baby, without 
trying to get them out, put out her tongue and made efforts to 
reach the cloak with it. After a little she gave this up and got 
her hands out again. 

The 1 20th day (seventeen weeks old) I showed her a colored 
picture-book. She looked at it with interest and put out her hands 
to touch the pages, feeling till she got hold of the edge, when she 
at once pulled the book to her mouth. I then held it beyond her 
reach, and she stretched out both arms toward it as far as she 
could. Her grasping was still, however, to a great extent feeling 
for the object, without much dependence on visual direction: she 
would put out her hand with fingers lightly spread or curled, not 
prepared to seize, touch the object with the tips, then feel about 
it till she got a good hold. 

As an instance of her skill in taking up an object from her 
tray at the end of the fourth month, I saw her on the I22d day 
take up a heavy silver napkin ring nicely with one hand, and carry 
it to her mouth. 

With the beginning of the fifth month there was a perceptible 
advance in precision and confidence of grasping, yet the method 
remained the same. I watched it carefully: the baby would first 
put her hand uncertainly out with fingers spread and no appearance 
of intention to grasp, but looking at the object always; when she 



3l6 University of California. [Vol. i. 

had once touched it her motion would become more confident; 
she would feel about it till she had a good grasp, and then take it. 
There could be no doubt of the deliberate character of the action 
since about the time she took hold of the picture frame. Once, 
the 130th day, her grandfather came up to her and held out both 
forefingers, and she lifted her hands and laid hold on a finger with 
each hand quite promptly, but could not be got to repeat the 
action. She liked at this time (nineteenth week) to pull her father's 
and grandfather's whiskers: they had begun this by tangling her 
hands in their whiskers, but now the action was plainly voluntary. 
She did not thus far care much for grasping, her interest being 
centered in the use of her eyes and voice: nor did she show 
gayety in it (not even in diving at faces or pulling beards), seeming 
to regard it as solely for the serious purpose of putting things into 
her mouth ; she would sit very quietly, looking about her and 
putting her rattle, ring, or spools into her mouth. Yet twice 
(129th day) she looked at her mother in a troubled way and put 
up her lip to cry on losing a heavy napkin ring she was trying to 
lift, — an unprecedented sign of disappointment. 

She grasped with the mouth with more precision and prompt- 
ness than with the hands, and really showed more disposition to 
use it. The 123d day, and again the 128th, as I held her in my 
arms, she turned around, and made two or three quick dives at 
me with her head, apparently to get the loose folds of my bodice 
into her mouth. When held near any one's face she would attack 
it, sometimes with a sudden dive of her head (accompanied with a 
sympathetic doubling-up movement of the body), and mouth it 
with satisfaction. She still dived her head to meet her fingers 
when at times she seemed suddenly to think of putting them into 
her mouth (at such times the fingers likewise were brought up 
with a jerk, though all other voluntary movements of the hands 
were slow). The 130th day, as she lay on her back, a rubber ring 
in her mouth fell out and lay around her nose, resting on her 
cheeks, upper lip, and the bridge of the nose. She made many 
efforts to seize it with her lips, stretching her mouth open ridicu- 
lously, but none with her hands, though they fluttered wildly in 
sympathy. When after some time she had tumbled it off with a 
movement of her head, she looked up at her mother a little 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 3^7 

frightened, we thought; but when the same thing happened twice 
again she became famiUarized with it, and after a httle effort to get 
hold of the ring with her mouth, let it lie there. 

I noticed this week also that she began to cling a little to us 
when held in arms, instead of sitting passively in our arms as in a 
chair. 

At the end of the nineteenth week and in the twentieth there 
was a Vv^onderful advance in skill and interest in grasping. First 
(i32d day) I noticed increased promptness and precision in taking 
hold of small, familiar objects in familiar positions, and also increased 
skill in playing with a short rattle set on a rubber strip, by taking 
the rubber between her jaws and jerking it out with a twitch. 
Next (133d day), I noticed that she could always find a toy when 
she had dropped it on the tray of her chair, but not if she dropped 
it in her lap; in that case she would make a little wishful cry that 
always brought some one to restore the toy, — again to the dis- 
comfiture of my observations, for I wished to see if she would not 
learn to find it herself The same day in making one of her 
sudden passes with open mouth at my forehead, she made a 
simultaneous clutch at my face with her hands, and this was the 
rule for two or three days; then the clutch was made with hands 
alone, though the baby would afterward put up her lips to mouth 
our faces. The 134th day she held her rattle up before her as she 
lay on her back, and inspected it carefully. The 135th day she 
played with a call-bell with great interest, pulling it toward her 
-and trying for a long time to lift it, with but partial success; the 
same day she held an envelope a long time, pulling it this way and 
that between her two hands without trying to put it into her 
mouth; the same day, too, she first reached for her toes, on having 
lier attention drawn to them. She had been shown them once 
before, and had regarded them with interest but had made no effort 
to touch them; now she took hold of them without difficulty, 
and — which surprised me — ■ flexed the foot forward on the ankle 
joint and brought it within reach of her hand in quite a skilful 
way, as though she felt her control of it; she did this several 
times. Later she reached for her toes more than once without 
suggestion, and also took hold of her leg repeatedly, as it was 



3l8 University of California. [Vol, i. 

kicked up before her. The 136th day she played assiduously with 
her feet and toes; and set down on the table, she tried quite hard 
to scramble forward to get at an object she desired, and reached 
for everything near her on the table. The 137th day she was 
deeply interested in playing with a call-bell, pulling it about, 
banging it down, etc. For two or three days now, though the 
hand was still put out for grasping slowly and cautiously, it was 
with the fingers held ready. 

By the end of the week (twentieth) the desire to seize every- 
thing had become the baby's predominant interest. Moreover, as 
may be seen from the items of progress day by day given just 
above, it was no longer merely for the sake of putting things to her 
mouth that she seized them: finger-touch, together with the varied 
muscular experience possible through manipulation, seemed to be 
at last asserting itself as a source of interest against the sensibility 
of lips and tongue. The baby would "play" with many things, 
pulling them to and fro for a minute, then putting to her mouth. 
Whatever was shown that interested her she tried to seize, — pic- 
tures on the wall, figures on a tray, roses on the bedquilt. If an 
article did not move readily under her hands her mouth went down 
to it. Though very fretful for a couple of days, from a temporary 
insufficiency of nourishment, she would always stop fretting for 
some minutes when given a plaything. 

The rest of the fifth month is a record of incessant interest in 
seizing and handling things, and of some increase in skill. The 
baby was absorbed in looking and feeling; she desired to look at 
and touch every object shown her, and others on which her eyes 
might light. She would stretch both arms out, taking hold on the 
two sides, and usually drew the object at once toward her mouth; 
though often she would pull it around awhile first. Her toes were 
always seized with great interest when she was undressed. A steel 
bell given her on the 146th day was at first pushed and pulled 
about on the table, and put into her mouth, — any part that came 
handiest, — but by the 149th day was rung with intention; she 
would shake it awhile, then put it into her mouth, then shake it 
again. The first time she was given food in a bottle (141st day) 
she took hold of the bottle readily and put the nipple easily into 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 3 1 9 

her mouth ; then (not hking the taste of the new rubber nipple) 
would reject it, look at it with interest and surprise, reach out her 
arms for it, pull it to her mouth and get the nipple in nicely, theri 
go through the same process again. She wished to hold and 
manage the bottle entirely herself, but could not be trusted to tilt 
it properly. A large glass marble, perhaps an inch and a half or 
more in diameter, which she had failed to hold on the 140th day, 
she lifted nicely with both hands on the 141st and carried success- 
fully to her mouth, seeming to appreciate perfectly that it was a 
slippery and difficult handful; she lost it easily, however, and did 
not care much for it. Later she picked it up with one hand, but 
could not keep it. 

I noticed (147th day) that in taking up her bell she did not 
nearly always reverse her thumb properly, as when a small, con- 
venient object was placed in her hand; nor did she always use her 
whole hand, but would get hold with two fingers or more, as it 
might chance. 

By the last week of the month she played with as small an 
object as the curtain cord, especially the knot on the end of it. 

I never at any time saw her make a snatch at an object within 
her reach and miss it, like Preyer's boy, by reaching too far to left 
or right, or too short. She sometimes reached for something a 
little too far away, but never from the first more than three feet 
away, and her accuracy in estimating her reach rapidly increased. 
Her method of seizing by a cautious extension of both hands, 
corralling the object, so to speak, between them, made it impossible 
to make many errors. 

During the fifth month, the gesture of holding out her hands to 
be taken was developed from grasping; and also another interesting 
gesture, that of holding out the arms to an object rather as an 
expression of interest and desire than as a real effort to grasp it. 
In the case of these gestures, (both of which were first noticed in 
the nineteenth week), as they differentiated more and more from 
grasping, the arms were more and more reached toward objects at 
a considerable distance. 

Through the sixth month the baby was eager to get at and 
touch everything; when carried about the room she put out her 



320 University of California. [Vol. i, 

hands continually, wishing to touch, pull, and carry to her mouth 
every object; she was no longer satisfied simply to watch. As 
she sat in our laps she was busy reaching in every direction for 
something to get hold of. If nothing presented itself within 
reach to seize, she would lean this way and that as if seeking 
something. Sitting on the floor she would at this time look 
around her for dropped playthings, and could pick them up if they 
lay conveniently. In carrying objects to her mouth she made na 
more errors: from the 153d day I noticed that she did it promptly 
and correctly. The same day a bright celluloid ball, perhaps two 
inches in diameter, was held out to her: she reached out both 
hands and took it between them and carried it to her lips, and this 
was several times repeated. I then held up to the light the large 
and heavy glass marble which she had managed successfully with 
both hands on the 141st day. Holding the celluloid ball in one 
hand, she reached for the marble, got it firmly in the other hand, 
and brought both at once to her mouth. This also was repeated 
several times. She had evidently quite got over any difficulty in 
managing different objects in her two hands. On the 158th day 
she tried to catch flies on the window, reaching her arms high after 
them as they crept up the pane. The i62d day she handled and bit 
a small rubber ring (such as is put about papers, — perhaps ^ of 
an inch in diameter, the rubber about rV of an inch in thickness), 
and in the twenty-fourth week was devoted to strings as playthings. 
One particular case of skill, which was remarkable as involving 
the use of a number of other muscles in co-operation with those 
of hands, arms, and neck, was the trick of putting the toe in the 
mouth, which began in the fifth month and reached great perfection 
in the sixth. The baby tried it first on the 148th day, and made 
great efforts, pulling the toes toward her mouth, but would always 
kick and lose them out. Then she took the toes of the left foot 
with the left hand, and clasped the right hand about the instep to 
hold the foot still, and so pulled it quite near to her mouth, but 
always lost it at the last moment. Finally she clasped the ankle 
and heel firmly with both hands, and so, after several attempts, 
brought the toe triumphantly into her mouth, — ■ losing it instantly, 
apparently by diversion of attention, as she looked up to us for 
sympathy in her success. The performance was repeated at once. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 32 I 

however. After this, she managed it daily better, and was more 
interested in her toes: I was told that on the 155th day she caught 
sight of her feet when in her high-chair, and leaned over its tray 
and grasped them. By the 159th she got the toe into her mouth 
very skilfully, holding the foot with both hands firmly and getting 
the big toe between her jaws, where she would suck it assiduously 
for as long as her mother would let her (which was never over a 
minute). She would hold the toe firmly to her mouth with both 
hands all the time, and even when it was pulled or shaken out, 
would hold it "handy by." Her incessant occupation when 
undressed was now this sucking of her toe, varied with a few kicks 
and flourishes of her legs. The 167th day, the instant her skirts 
were drawn off, her legs went up as if a spring were released, and 
her hands went to her toes. At first her inability to keep the foot 
from kicking away from her as if it were a foreign object, unless 
forcibly held by her hands, showed very limited co-operation of the 
different parts of her body: but by this time (note of i68th day) 
she used legs and hands, head and mouth, very well together. 
After the 167th day, the interest in sucking the toe declined, 
though the baby continued for a couple of weeks or more to seize 
at her feet, which flew up the instant they were released in 
undressing ; yet the movement was made as if by a mechanical 
habit, without much real attention to the feet. 

I have said that even before the close of the fifth month objects 
were not grasped merely to be carried to the mouth, but " played 
with" a little, by moving them about in simple ways : this increased 
through the sixth and seventh months, and at seven months I saw 
the baby once or twice playing with something without trying to 
put it into her mouth at all. This was rare, however, even to the end 
of the eighth month: it was but slowly that the hand superseded 
the mouth as the chief seat of active touch, — far more slowly than 
it had taken the lead for purposes of prehension ; and far on into 
the second year there were recurrences of the disposition to carry 
everything to the mouth. (See Sense of Contact, pp. 137, 138.) 

In the seventh month there was perhaps not quite such an 
ardent absorption in seizing at anything and everything as in the 



32 2 . University of California. [Vol. i. 

sixth, but I have incessant notes of the baby's reaching for objects 
that interested her. On the 202d day, I was told (but did not see 
it myself), she caught sight of a flower out of the corner of her eye, 
and reached backward and snatched it, without turning to bring it 
to the field of direct vision. It is not until the beginning of the 
eighth month that I find any note of the swift snatching by which 
babies elude the vigilance of their guardians, and get hold of things 
before they can be stopped : at this time she would thus snatch 
"like a shot" at the dog's hair if he came near, and pull it, — a 
considerably easier thing, of course, than to snatch thus swiftly, 
with correct aim, at a single small object. 

By the end of the seventh month the baby's advance in locomo- 
tion was displacing her interest in grasping. The power was fairly 
acquired for life, and now took its normal place as one among 
her resources. It continued, however, throughout the first and 
second years, and to some extent even in the third, to be more used 
than it is by grown people: it was more necessary for the child 
than for us to get hold of ■sea object instead of being satisfied with 
looking at it. 

Her skill in grasping when the finger-tips alone could be used, 
perfected but slowly: in the thirty-fourth week she tried unsuccess- 
fully to pick up tiny scraps and thrums, say ^ inch in diameter, 
from the floor; in the thirty-sixth (249th day), she picked up a 
small tack and a pin with ease; and at thirty-eight weeks old she 
played with a single hair and with a wisp of thread scarcely larger 
than a pinhead. Even at fifteen months old, however, I saw her 
make several efforts before she could pick up a small shot. 

Differentiation of the Forefinger Tip as Special Organ of 

Active Feeling. 

I saw no sign of special delicacy of feeling in the finger tip till 
grasping had been thoroughly established for some months. On 
the 278th day (tenth month) I first saw the baby investigating some 
object with her forefinger tip; again the next day; and on the next 
the forefinger was much used, or sometimes the thumb and forefinger 
together. The next day the use of the right forefinger was very 
marked: it was often carried extended even when the baby was not 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 323 

investigating, and when the other fingers were half closed; the left 
forefinger, however, was not kept separate from the others. Out of 
this special use of the right forefinger, pointing was developed, as I 
shall elsewhere describe. 

Use of Right and Left Hand. 

In the involuntary movements that preceded grasping I was 
not able to detect any predominance of either side of the body. 
Either hand closed equally well on an object laid in the palm, and 
in the various spontaneous and expressive movements of the early 
months, there seemed no difference in activity between right and 
left limbs. The disposition to use both hands together was 
noticeable in all stages of progress toward grasping and for a time 
after grasping was acquired, — up to the middle of the fifth month 
at least. In fact, the early grasping may be in general described 
as two-handed, like a squirrel's; even when one hand did the 
actual grasping, it was after both hands had fumbled for the object, 
and whichever touched it first had the preference. When in the 
third month the baby was pulling herself up to a sitting position 
by holding to our forefingers, I never observed any difference 
between the hands in strength of pull. When in the fourth month, 
upon the hands encountering each other, each would seize and try 
to carry the other to the mouth, I never saw that either one 
exercised any predominance. 

In several incidents where one hand or the other seemed to be 
preferred, it always proved to be due to mere accident, or to be 
contradicted by some other incident. The relative use of right and 
left hand in managing the foot, e. g., (p. 320) was entirely due to 
the position in which the mother always held the baby while un- 
dressing her, leaving the left leg freer, and exposed to fuller light 
than the right ; when the position was reversed for experiment, the 
other leg was seized. In the sixth month, when the baby began to 
roll over (p. 333), it was always leftward, even when her toys were 
placed on the right, — indicating possibly that the muscles on the 
right were stronger; yet it may have simply chanced that the first 
time she rolled over was in this direction, and she had no idea of 
accomplishing the movement in any other way. After her mother 
had once helped her to roll over toward the right, she rolled one 
22 



324 University of California. [Vol. a. 

way or the other indifferently. In the eighth month (228th day) 
she held a valise ten seconds with her left hand, and six seconds 
only and with more appearance of effort, with the right, — but the 
left hand was used first, and there was probably some general 
fatigue before the weight was taken with the right hand. 

Nevertheless, we were satisfied that in the first weeks of grasping 
the left hand was more used; but I cannot establish this from my 
record. There is no question that after the two-handed period was 
fairly over, after grasping had become habitual, the right hand was 
the one used by preference, and has been consistently so ever since. 
When the use of the forefinger tip for special investigation appeared, 
in the tenth month, it was always the rz^/z/ forefinger; and so too 
in pointing afterward. It is my impression that it was at this time 
that distinct right-handedness became apparent; but my notes do 
not make this clear. 

In climbing upstairs in the twenty-first month the right foot 
always led, — probably in all the climbing, but I failed to observe 
as to this. In first using a fork at table (fifteenth month) and later 
in all implement-using, and in giving her hand, the child always 
used the right hand as a matter of course, without instruction. In 
many cases where I have not recorded which hand was used, or 
which foot led, I am satisfied I should have noted it had it been the 
left, since the use of the right was after the age of eight or nine 
months so common and apparently so instinctive with her; and 
since I myself am strongly right-handed. The child's parents are 
both right-handed, the mother strongly so; the father's mother and 
brother have a decided ambidexterity, which seems to remain from 
an original left-handedness, out of which they have been trained,' 
and an uncle of the mother's is completely left-handed. 



Equilibrium and Locomotion. 

The main movements by which the powers of balancing and 
carrying the body in human fashion were acquired (holding up 
and turning the head, sitting, rolling, creeping, standing, walking, 
running, climbing, jumping) I have not separated into topical 
chapters, since a better idea of the progressive development ol 
command over the body can be had from a continuous narrative. 
The movements unfolded to some extent one from another, in a 
continuous progress. 

First Two Months: Holding up and Turning the Head, and 
Progress toward Sitting. 

From quite early, perhaps even from the first week, (I began to 
notice it in the second) there was perceptible in the bath a tenser 
or more innervated condition of the muscles, and especially of the 
neck muscles; by the third week there was an appearance of 
voluntary effort in this stiffening of the neck, and when the baby's 
body was held horizontally in the water, her head supported just 
over the surface by her mother's fingers, she would raise it slightly 
from the support. The ability thus to raise the head increased 
steadily without any marked step of progress. Meanwhile the 
vague spontaneous rolling of the head to and fro took on more 
appearance of real turning in order to stare about; in the fourth 
week (25th day) the head was unmistakably thrown backward in 
order to see something better (see Fixation, p. 14). 

In the fifth week blind seeking movements with the head were 
made when the baby was placed at the breast ; there was a trick of 
turning the head sidewise in looking at the mother; once (32d day) 
when the baby was laid on her face, she turned her head sidewise 
to free the face, at the same time propping her body up somewhat 
with her knees; on the 33d day the head was unmistakably turned 
to follow the movement of a candle. 

By the end of the fifth week the head was held up from the 
mother's hand in the bath for twenty seconds at a time, at an angle 
of about forty-five degrees with the line of the back. At the same 

( 325 ) 



226 University of California. [Vol. i. 

time the body was strongly propped with the knees on the bottom 
of the tub. It was no longer in the bath only that the head was 
raised: the baby would lift it to see around, sometimes for twenty 
seconds at a time, when she was held upright against the shoulder. 
By the end of the sixth week, when held thus against the shoulder, 
or upright in the arms, she would hold her head erect, balancing 
it perfectly for perhaps a quarter minute, and even then would 
not drop it limply, but seek some neighboring support to rest it 
against. 

In the seventh week she could hold her head up in the bath 
fairly at right angles with the line of her back, for a quarter minute 
or more. She would rest it sidewise on her mother's wrist when 
tired, then raise it again. While holding it up, she would keep it 
turning from side to side all the time, — a movement which I have 
classed as spontaneous, (p. 300) but which I mention again here, 
since the power to balance and turn the head at the same time was 
now first seen. 

One day in this week (45th day) the baby turned her head to 
look at the piano keys, — the first unmistakable use of the move- 
ment to bring something within the field of vision. 

Meanwhile a pleasure in having the body also erect had become 
apparent. The baby's liking for upright positions — for a sitting 
one in which her grandmother held her, and for the position up 
against some one's shoulder — had been noted as early as the sixth 
week, and in the seventh (47th day) I noticed that when fretting 
persistently she stopped when I lifted her to my shoulder. This 
liking now began to develop into desire: in the ninth week the 
baby would usually begin to fret after lying down some twenty 
minutes, and would seem satisfied when lifted and held against the 
shoulder. On the 57th day, when thus held, she would first raise 
her head erect, then straighten back against the arm that supported 
her till her back also was erect, (propped by the arm or hand 
behind to be sure, but still taking much of its own weight,) and 
would then occupy herself in looking about. This she did persist- 
ently every time she was taken up. As often as pressed down on 
the shoulder she would become discontented and straighten herself 
up again. She would hold the head erect for a half minute, then 



Shinn.] The Developme7it of a Child. ^t'^'J 

lean it against my cheek for a few seconds, raise it again, drop it 
forward on her breast, hold it up, drop it backward, — not helplessly, 
but as if to look at the ceiling, — and again raise it,^ always in high 
content till made to lie down. 

Here was a distinct step toward sitting, in the desire and ability 
to hold the spine as well as the head erect; and it continued daily, 
— the power to balance the head slowly increasing at the same 
time. On the 59th day the head was held up (when I timed it 
once) two and a quarter minutes; it wavered a little during this 
time, sinking somewhat forward or to one side, but most of the 
time was quite erect. The 60th day it was held up with some 
wavering, but without once sinking to any support, for many 
minutes. By the second week of the third month the head was 
balanced quite perfectly, and turned at will to look about.^ 

Third Month to End of the Half Year: Sitting, Turning Over, 
and Primitive Leg and Trunk Movements. 

The desire for the sitting position now, with the beginning of 
the third month, became most persistent and striking. The baby 
for a time made no effort to raise herself, but would fret and some- 
times cry hard till she was raised and held in a sitting position. 
Her back was always supported carefully, but once when an 
inexperienced person neglected this precaution for a minute, steady- 
ing her only, she held herself up firmly, and seemed to like it. By 
the twelfth week her insistence had led to her spending much of 



1 It was at this time that the curious jerking and turning movements referred 
to above (p. 301) occurred. On the 56th day, while thus holding her head erect, 
the baby began to jerk it to left and right as far as the neck would turn, so 
strongly that when I did not keep my face out of the way I received a really 
smart blow. She would let her head drop on my shoulder for about two 
seconds, then raise it and jerk it about again; this she kept up for five or ten 
minutes. The 59th day, while holding up her head with persistent effort, she 
turned it continuously from side to side for about a minute, this time without the 
jerking motion, and with some appearance of deliberate experiment,— quite a 
different movement in manner from the semi-spontaneous turning to and fro 
in the bath, above referred to (p. 326). 

2 Of the vigorous and skilful movements of the neck in the fourth, fifth and 
sixth months, in connection with grasping, I have given a record above. 



328 U^iiversity of Calif or^iia. [Vol. i. 

her time propped up with cushions, and in our laps she was always 
held sitting. 

As far back as the seventh week, when the mother held her 
hands in wiping her after the bath, and perhaps gave a slight 
unintentional pull, the baby had begun to pull, as if to lift herself, 
though she probably had no such intent at that time (p. 312): 
her mother had tried to develop this, however, giving the baby her 
fingers and starting her by a suggestive little tug; and she had 
doubtless had the experience more than once of finding herself 
raised a little in this way. She now, in the twelfth week, certainly 
made efforts to raise herself, pulling with energ}^ on her mother's 
forefincyers when one was laid in each hand. She tried also 
to lift her body direct)}' by the abdominal muscles, raising her 
head and shoulders from the lap or lounge but getting no 
further up. 

A few days before the close of the month (89th day) her parents 
called me, saying that the baby had raised herself to a sitting 
position. She was lying slightly reclined along her mother's 
knees, between which her hips were somewhat braced, giving her 
an advantage in lifting herself While I looked, she raised her 
head and shoulders, then her body, with much appearance of effort, 
till she was sitting. She did this twice, and tried a third time, but 
was evidently tired, and failed. She did it calmly and seriously, 
without any sign of pleasure or pride in the exertion, evidently 
for the mere purpose of getting into a sitting position. The next 
day her mother laid her along her lap again to see if she would 
repeat the action, but the hips were not so well braced, and though 
the baby tried to lift herself she did not succeed. Later, as she 
lay across her mother's lap, she kept trying to lift herself, raising 
head and shoulders, till I took her hands to give her a leverage : she 
tugged at my hands with such zeal that her face grew red, and 
raised her head and back, but the legs also rose, overweighted by 
the trunk, and she could not raise the hips and buttocks; she fell 
back, but immediately tried again very earnestly, and still a third 
time; then she became discouraged, and began to fret pitifully, on 
which her mother interfered and lifted her up. Once again before 
night, as she lay reclined a little on a pillow, she raised herself 
several times till her shoulders and her back as far as the lumbar 
region were clear. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 329 

After this followed several days of persistent efforts to raise 
herself. On the last day of the third month I found the baby 
lying in a somewhat reclining position and trying from time to 
time to sit up : I gave her my forefingers to pull on, and finally, 
with great effort and eagerness, she pulled herself fairly up, and 
immediately tipped over sidewise. Afterward she tried twenty- 
five times, with scarcely a pause between, to lift herself by the 
abdominal muscles, but could lift her head and shoulders only; 
she showed discouragement by this time, but might have gone on 
trying had she been allowed. I was told that earlier in the day, 
when somewhat higher on her pillow, she had thus, by the sheer 
pull of the abdominal muscles, brought herself up sitting, and at 
once tipped forward on her nose. The effort and earnestness of 
all these attempts to sit up was astonishing ; and when the baby 
pulled on my hands the strength of her grasp and pull was some- 
thing most unexpected, — fully equal in proportion to her weight 
to that of any grown person. 

With the fourth month the progress in sitting seemed checked. 
The baby had possibly become tired or discouraged by her futile 
efforts to raise herself During the month she would occasionally 
try to lift herself, either by the abdominal muscles unaided, or by 
pulling on our fingers ; and by the latter method could raise her- 
self half-way, but never quite erect. At just sixteen weeks old, 
when propped in a lounge corner almost erect, she raised herself 
completely, and sat for ten minutes or more with apparent ease 
and perfect balance ; but I found that the cushions and lounge 
back made a support for her hips. Twice, however, (once in the 
fifteenth week and once in the seventeenth,) she sat for a few 
seconds in some one's lap quite unsupported and unsteadied. 

During the early part of this month, her determination to be 
always sitting or else held upright was as strong as in the third, 
and nothing but having her legs free to kick could reconcile her 
to being laid down when indoors ; but by the middle of the month, 
sitting being now customary, she did not object to being laid down 
for a few minutes at a time ; in the fifteenth week, when laid on 
the floor face downward, she would enjoy the novel position for 
a short time, being now able to raise her head and shoulders 
and look around. Up to the seventeenth week, she was content 



330 University of California. [Vol. i. 

to lie down in her baby-carriage outdoors ; but in that week she 
rebelled, and fretted till allowed to sit up. The first time that 
this happened she shortly became very sleepy, but though her 
head drooped forlornly she would not be laid down, protesting 
whenever I tried it, half-asleep as she was. 

At four months old, in deference to an old frontier custom 
urged by the grandfather, the baby was seated daily, with her 
playthings, in a horse-collar: it proved a comfortable seat, afford- 
ing just the support for her hips that enabled her to sit erect, and 
she would sit very quietly for twenty minutes at a time, looking 
about and putting her rattle or spools into her mouth. Her 
experiments in the nineteenth and twentieth weeks at bending 
her body back over this horse-collar, and afterward over the arm 
of any one who held her, have been noted above (pp. 143, 198). 
By this time she required but the slightest steadying to sit erect, 
and often sat on our laps for a few minutes without real support, 
though steadied by a hand. In the nineteenth week, she was 
delighted by being seated astride one's foot, held by her hands, 
and swung up and down with the foot. She was at this period 
coaxed through the first stages of drowsiness by being seated on 
the point of the knee and trotted, as noted under Sleep. The 
strength of her back was evidently quite adequate to sitting alone, 
but the balancing was not mastered. 

(In this week, the nineteenth, began the progress toward loco- 
motion, in the first rolling and sprawling movements on the floor: 
the development of these now went on alongside that of sitting, 
and will be reverted to presently.) 

On the 1 39th day she sat quite alone on my lap for some ten 
seconds; the next day several times for a full minute: she could sit 
alone very well when perfectly still, but if she turned about, reached 
for anything, or even flourished her hands or feet, she would topple 
over. When seated in her baby-carriage two days later, she began 
to play with the leather strap that passed in front to prevent her 
falling out, and sat erect for nearly half an hour ^ithout other 
support than the contact of her hands (and sometimes her mouth) 
with this. Sitting quite alone for £j, minute or two now became 
common, — or for longer periods with but the slightest pretext 
of support; once, on the 143d day, losing her balance, she recov- 



Shinn.] The Developmeiit of a Child. 331 

ered it instead of tipping over. This sitting alone, however, was 
always thus far on the lap or a cushion, or some other hollowed 
or yielding surface: she could not keep her balance on the floor 
or table for more than a few seconds. 

The sixth month showed gradual improvement in equilibrium in 
sitting, with no marked step of advance. At twenty-two weeks old 
she could not sit alone on the floor more than half a minute, — she 
could hold herself erect without difficulty, but could not keep 
equilibrium, and would topple as soon as she reached for anything, 
though she was now quite secure in her balance for several minutes 
on the lap. At twenty-five weeks, she sat pretty steadily on a stool 
for a good many seconds, not even toppling over when she sneezed. 
On the last day of the month (twenty-sixth week) she sat for nine 
minutes on the lap, and six minutes on the floor, and in neither case 
showed any insecurity at the end of the time, but became restless. 
When not kept perpendicular by judiciously dangled playthings, 
however, she still was sure to tilt herself over before long by reach- 
ing after something, or by throwing up her feet to catch at her toes. 
On the lap she often sat for long times without any help. From 
high reclining positions — perhaps half sitting — she could sit up 
with ease; but during the whole of this and the preceding month 
(except for a slight renewal at twenty weeks old) efforts to raise 
herself when lying down had been given up. 

This may have been partly because lying down became more 
agreeable now that she could move about more freely. I have 
mentioned above that in the nineteenth week the first locomotor 
movements had appeared. At that time the baby had begun rather 
suddenly to turn and change her position a good deal when lying 
on the floor, — not to roll completely over, but to get from back 
to side, and by sundry slight, irregular movements to get into quite 
varied positions. What with this rudimentary rolling and wriggling 
on the floor, the freer turning, leaning, bending, and recovering in 
sitting, and the movements connected with grasping, especially the 
complicated ones in reaching for and handling her feet, it is evident 
that by the latter part of the fifth month, the trunk and limbs were 
coming into a condition of control and flexibility favorable to the 
later achievement of creeping, standing, and walking. The desire 



332 University of California. [Vol. i. 

of locomotion had also to be developed considerably before the 
baby would put herself to the necessary effort of acquiring it; just 
as a great desire to sit up was necessary before the effortless position 
of lying down could be abandoned for the difficult balancing and 
muscular exertions of sitting. The first rudiment of desire of 
locomotion appeared in the twentieth week, and in connection with 
grasping: on the 136th day, as the baby sat on the table, she began 
to lean forward on my arm, which encircled her, till I let her sink 
down on her hands and knees; and in this position she tried quite 
hard to strain or scramble forward to reach some desired object, 
pushing backward with her feet, but did not actually move forward. 
She had had incidentally a good deal of experience of being moved 
forward by pushing with her feet (in the bath-tub, e. g.), and this 
movement may have been the result of that experience, or may 
have been merely an accompanying movement, in the effort to 
strain forward. 

During the first half of the sixth month the sprawling about had 
increased in freedom, and was enjoyed for fifteen or twenty minutes 
at a time by the baby; but showed no tendency to develop into any 
regular method of locomotion. From the fifteenth week, the 
grandmother (believing creeping an important preparation for walk- 
ing, better for limbs and back than any of the substitutes, such as 
hitching) had placed the baby on the floor, face downward, to give 
her an opportunity to develop creeping movements; but without 
result. In the twenty-second week she had begun to set the baby 
on arms and knees on the large dining-table, bracing her with a 
hand against her feet: the baby, as usual on feeling her soles set 
against anything, would push backward, thus thrusting herself 
forward; and as the table-cover slid on the smooth surface, and the 
hand behind her feet was advanced with her, she would thus struggle 
rapidly across the table, grunting toward the end of the trip with 
an air of much exertion. Her grandmother purposed thus to 
encourage the idea of forward progression, and associate it with the 
creeping position. The effect, however, seems to have been to 
strengthen the association, already probably incipient, between 
forward motion and the act of pushing backward with the feet: 
for on the 167th day, and again on the i68th, when the baby 
was lying on her stomach, and saw something before her that she 



Shinn.] . llie Development of a CJiild. 333 

wished to get, she began pushing with her feet against empty space, 
fretting when she found this futile. Once in struggHng toward it, 
she approximated creeping movements, but her feet and knees 
were so entangled in her long skirts that she accomplished nothing. 
A considerable advance in rolling which took place this same week 
(twenty-fourth) now diverted her from the disposition to creep, so 
that though she was put into short clothes the next week, no 
more efforts at forward movement appeared for some time.^ 

This advance in rolling seems to have come about accidentally: 
the baby, in trying to reach something, rolled over entirely, from 
back to stomach. I saw this first on the 167th day, but was told it 
had happened several times in the preceding days. By the i68th 
day she was rolling over purposely, and sometimes quickly, though 
at first it had been done slowly. At first, too, she had always 
caught her arm under her when she turned, and extricated it 
afterward with difficulty ; now she drew the arm out easily. The 
next day, the 169th (just twenty-four weeks old), and for days 
following she rolled over whenever she was laid on her back, some- 
times quickly, sometimes with difficulty; and lying on her stomach, 
would lift her head and shoulders and look round, like a little 
lizard. She always tired soon of the position, however, and being 

"^ There can be no doubt that the early locomotor movements are unduly 
delayed by the baby's skirts, and that a baby would profit in development and 
use of limbs by much nude e.xercise. After creeping is learned, babies are often 
13ut into "creepers" (garments of rude trouser form, devised for freedom of 
movement and protection from dirt); but in the stage of development that 
precedes creeping, when a great number of approximate movements are being 
made, out of which the useful locomotor ones will later be selected, the legs 
are usually much confined. The appearance of these preliminary movements 
should be a signal forgiving the baby all practicable freedom of action. Babies 
who are kept always on a bed or in the lap are put at a great disadvantage in 
this respect; and even in the case of my niece, who was a "floor baby," the 
first disposition to creep may have been lost by a week's delay in getting 
her into' short skirts. The mother must avoid the danger of cold, even at cost 
of checking muscular development : but it seems a reasonable conjecture that 
without the hampering influence of long skirts and the practice of keeping 
babies off the floor, this primitive quadrupedal movement would appear much 
earlier, and play a larger part in the infant's activities, than it does. If it pre- 
ceded securely balanced sitting (as my observations indicate that, without any 
artificial check, it might), the less natural and less useful hitching would never 
appear as a substitute. 



334 University of California. Vol. r, 

unable to turn herself back, would begin to fret. Nevertheless, she 
took great satisfaction in the enlarged freedom of her movements, 
— which, as I have suggested above, may have been the cause of 
the cessation, for the time, of efforts to sit up. 

It will be seen that at the close of the first half year the baby 
was fairly well able to sit alone (though with still insecure equi- 
librium); and that the activity of trunk and limbs was considerable, 
and the tendency toward rolling and creeping movements clearly 
visible. At this stage of development Preyer's child made regular 
walking movements when held with his soles touching a flat surface 
and moved gently forward ; and Champney's child made these 
alternate movements very perfectly as early as the nineteenth week> 
In my niece's case, there was no sign of any instinct to walk. 

Of primitive movements that might have some relation to walk- 
ing, the earliest were the propping with the knees (p. 325), and 
the pushing with the feet against a resisting surface (pp. 180, 189) 
repeatedly mentioned above. In the seventh week this pushing 
against the foot of the tub was so strong that the mother could not 
keep the baby from bumping her head against the other end of the 
tub. In the twelfth week, when I seated her on my arm, holding 
her encircled with my other arm, and jumped her a little, she 
pushed strongly on my knee with her feet. Her grandmother at 
this time used to seat her on her palm and jump her, letting her 
"feel her feet" in the same way, and she was fond of the exercise. 
In the twelfth week began the strong and straight kicking described 
above (pp. 188-9), showing increased power over the movements of 
the legs. In the fifth month the baby made springing movements 
with her body, while sitting in one's lap or arms. Usually these 
appeared to be expressions of joy and interest, but on days when 
they were very persistent they continued through every mood ; as 
on the 153d day, when the baby was in a fretful condition, crying 
hard unless constantly diverted, yet kept springing in my arms as 
I carried her, or on the table when I set her down on it. It did 
not seem to be in such cases an expression of restlessness, but 
rather a persistent and unaccountable impulse, independent of her 
mood. With the sixth month she began to spring, instead of 
merely pushing, when held erect with her soles touching any 



^HiNN.] The Development of a Child. 335 

surface (even when taken into the lap); she would push down with 
her feet, and spring so strongly that it was hard to hold her. In 
the latter part of the sixth month the springing sometimes indi- 
cated desire for a frolic: at the same time, it ceased to be invariable 
when the baby was held with soles touching, — the old pushing, 
or an aimless kicking and shoving (with toes turned in), taking its 
place. In the bath (twenty-fifth week) the baby would plant her 
feet against the bottom of the tub as she was put in, before she 
could be seated, and would thrust with her feet till she lifted herself 
almost to a standing position ; she could with difficulty be made to 
sit down. There was no appearance in this of desire to stand; it 
seemed merely an impulse to push. 

Outside of this pushing, kicking, and springing, and a little 
propping of the body with the knees, there was in the first half 
year no disposition to use the legs in any way. 

Seventh and Eighth Months: Secure Sitting; Raising Self 

to Sitting Position; Rolling, and First Creeping 

Movements; Beginning of Standing. 

With the beginning of the second half year the baby's equilib- 
rium in sitting rapidly grew secure: by the middle of the seventh 
month I have record of her reaching in every direction as she sat, 
without losing balance, and by the end of the month she would 
sit alone by the half hour. Yet for several months longer she was 
not absolutely secure against an occasional unexpected and appar- 
ently causeless over-tilting, — perhaps once or twice a month. In 
the latter part of the seventh month she made a few efforts again 
to raise herself directly from her back; and once or twice pulled 
herself up by some neighboring object. 

At the beginning of the month, a little tendency toward creep- 
ing again appeared, through changes of position and movement 
when she had turned over face downward and propped herself with 
her knees; but it was again checked by an advance in rolling, — 
the discovery that she could roll over from her stomach to her 
back. This ability made her happy in rolling and kicking by the 
hour, changing her position at will. She made no effort to pro- 
gress by rolling, but if she happened to turn over in the same 



;^2i^ University of California. [Vol. i.- 

direction a number of times successively, she would traverse half 
the width of the room, coming in contact with many articles of 
great interest to her. Sometimes she would roll over to reach 
something, sometimes merely for change of position. Once (at 
twenty-nine weeks old) chancing to roll under a chair, she laid hold 
of it, and worked and drew herself under it, — doubtless by mere 
purposeless pulling. Her delight in the enlarged freedom of move- 
ment not only, as I have just said, stopped entirely the progress 
toward creeping, but considerably suspended the great pleasure 
she had taken the month before in grasping. 

In the first week of the eighth month (217th day) the bab/ 
waked and cried some time before she was heard; and when her 
mother went to her, she found her sitting up in bed: whether she 
had pulled herself up by the bedclothes or lifted herself from the 
pillow we could not tell. In the thirty-third week, I saw her raise 
herself from a pillow; and in the same week, she would raise her- 
self easily by my fingers (if started by a little suggestive pull), 
scarcely bringing any perceptible weight on them. Just at the end 
of the month, sitting in a large chair, her face toward its back, she 
chanced to thrust her feet through an opening between its seat and 
back, and her feet being thus held, she began to lie back and sit up 
with perfect ease. This was repeated on the next day.^ For about 
a week, however, as she played about the floor, she had had a more 
practical method of sitting up than either pulling up by some 
article or directly lifting herself by the abdominal muscles: this was 
to rise not from her back but from her side, leaning on one elbow 
and hand. 

In the latter part of the month she would sit in a rocking-chair 
and jiggle it, without disturbance to her equilibrium. Her sitting- 
of course, even in a chair, was not the customary adult position,, 
with knees bent, but the primitive one, with legs extended before 

^From the ease with which she sat up it was evident that the abdominal 
muscles had long been able to raise the trunk, and the only difficulty had come 
from inability to keep the legs down and give the lifting muscles leverage. 
Even grown people, in raising themselves by the abdominal muscles, are obliged 
to overcome the superior weight of the trunk as compared to the legs; and 
a baby's legs are much lighter, proportionally to the trunk, than an adult's. 



Shinn'.] The Development of a Child. 2,2)7 

her. She had sat on the lap or on an arm, however, with knees 
bent; and she took up this artificial civilized position with great 
ease, — though it is likely that for some years the primitive one 
was somewhat easier. 

Her rolling was still aimless, but more and more free and quick. 
On the day she was thirty-three weeks old I find mention of her 
"whirling" away, when her mother went to take her up from the 
table, where she had been laid down and allowed to roll; and on 
the next day of her "singularly rapid" rolling. She would now 
roll over and over several times in rapid succession, apparently for 
fun, without any appearance of effort, keeping her arms skilfully 
out of the way. Her joy in it was remarkable: during much of 
the month there was nothing she so desired as to be put down on 
the floor and allowed to roll, kick, and twist about freely. Out- 
doors she would coax to be put down instead of being carried 
about. I have not noted and do not remember that she ever 
wearied of it: the end of her hours of rolling about would be set 
by the needs of feeding or otherwise attending to her, not by her 
own fatigue. 

When lying on the floor, she would twist her body about very 
skilfully to reach things; and once (234th day), when she had rolled 
partly under a chair, she took hold of it and pulled it above her 
and played with it, greatly pleased with the performance. 

Up to the middle of the month I still saw no tendency toward 
creeping: she was more than content with the rolling. At thirty- 
two weeks old I twice saw her rest on her hands and knees and 
make two or three creeping movements, then sag down and roll 
over. Watching closely for the next few days, I saw that when 
rolling and twisting on the floor, she now and then raised herself 
on her hands and knees, but had no idea of locomotion. If I put 
my hand under her, she was disposed to lift her knees, and rest on 
her hands and feet instead. 

Throughout the thirty-third and thirty-fourth weeks, it was 
my daily note that she would several times a day get to her hands 
and knees, now and then even taking a step or two with them as 
if by accident: the movement, being one to wb.icli the position and 



T^T^S University of California. [Vol. i. 

the structure of the limbs were well adapted, was one quite possi- 
ble to make almost accidentally. One day in the thirty-third 
week (229th day) she drew herself forward flat on her stomach a 
few inches to reach something, — the first real voluntary locomo- 
tion. In the thirty-fourth week these positions were taken with 
more ease daily, and began to vary the rolling about. At last, on 
the day she was eight months old, the baby half crept, half 
sprawled forward a few inches to get something. 

During the same fortnight, she had been learning to pull her- 
self to her feet and stand by a support. For about six weeks in 
the second half year there had been absolutely no progress toward 
standing or walking (except that an increasing vigor of back and 
legs was shown at the end of the seventh month, when the mother 
first let her sit in the bath without a steadying hand : she sat care- 
fully, but celebrated her freedom by beginning at once to splash 
with her arms in high glee ; and as soon as her mother, afraid 
she would upset herself, put a steadying hand in the lightest way 
behind her head, the baby would begin to stiffen and throw her 
body, resting on her feet and her mother's hand). But at thirty- 
two weeks old, the day that I first saw creeping movements, I noted 
that the baby was pulling herself to her knees in the bath, holding 
by the side of the tub ; sometimes even partly to her feet, sup- 
ported by the water. At thirty-four weeks old, she began to pull 
herself quite to her feet, and afterward did this daily. She would 
hold by the edge of the tub, leaning far forward, her feet planted 
wide apart on the opposite side of the tub (an ordinary wooden 
wash-tub, her own little tin bath having been outgrown); on the 
last day of the month, she brought her feet nearer together. 

Her expression of pleasure in this achievement was noticeable ; 
and indeed the whole process of learning to stand was more con- 
scious than creeping, which seemed to have been almost stumbled 
upon in the first place, and afterward used merely to help to the 
attainment of desires ; Avhile the impulse to pull up to knees and 
feet seemed to come on her in a curiously instinctive and com- 
l)elling way, and to give joy in the satisfying of an internal necessity. 

In the thirty-fourth week, after she had been pulling to her 
knees, and nearly to her feet, for a week or more, her grandmother 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 339 

advised letting her practice pulling up by our hands: she would 
sit in our laps, bracing her feet against our bodies, and when 
started by a slight pull would draw herself up till she was poised 
on her feet, when we would at once bring her forward to rest on 
the breast, that she might not bear her weight on her feet for more 
than a point of time. She enjoyed this greatly, and seemed strong 
and perfectly able to do it; but in a day or two, having a cold, she 
seem^ed less able, and her knees would bend ; so it was given up. 

It was at this time that when taken under the arms and swung 
out, she would lift her body and legs and straighten them by sheer 
muscle, till she was horizontal or more (p. 191), keep the position 
a second or two, then relax and repeat it, — showing a consider- 
able strength of back. At the same period, she would fairly fling 
herself (from a chair, e. g.,) toward any person by whom she 
wished to be taken. 

Ninth Month: Raising Self to Sitting Position; Progress in 

Creeping; Varied Scrambling about; Progress 

in Standing ; First \A^alking Movements. 

With the ninth month began a period of rapid and varied 
development in movements, difficult to narrate in clear order. 

On the first day of the month I took careful note of the baby's 

method of sitting up. When laid on her back she would soon roll 

over; then raise herself to hands and knees; then lean sidewise till 

she was in a sort of inclined sitting position, resting on one hand; 

then lift herself up sitting, — all quite easily and unconsciously. 

The next day I saw it done in the same way, but also by another 

method, which soon became the regular one: the baby would first 

rise to hands and Icnees, then separate the knees and lift herself 

backward, — a process that has been found practically impossible by 

adults who have tried it for me. It brought the baby to an unusual 

sitting position, with legs spread wide before her, turning out at 

each knee in a right angle. I had watched for the simian position 

in sitting, so common with babies, — legs extended before them 

and soles turned toward each other, — but I never saw it; instead, 
23 



340 University of California. [Vol. i. 

the one just described, with the outward turn at the knee, became 
the invariable one/ 

Watching her a long time, her grandmother and I were both 
convinced that the sitting up was not a voluntarily adaptive move- 
ment, — that the baby did not know whether she was going to 
bring up sitting or not, but tumbled and scrambled around, and 
found herself in these positions. Apparently she desired to sit up, 
but had no clear idea of the movements necessary, and experimented 
till she found herself sitting, scolding all the time. This seemed 
true to me for several days, but the movements daily became more 
definite and purposive. The attempt to lift herself directly from her 
back by main strength was entirely given up. 

She would now sit on the arm of a stuffed chair, her feet in the 
seat, with entire security of balance ; in the thirty-eighth week she 
enjoyed sitting on the edge of a hammock and dangling her legs. 

Rolling declined as the baby became able to sit up and lie down 
at will, and to occupy herself with the more varied movements 
about to be described; it was never common after the first week of 
this month. 

The scrambling about the floor, however, became more varied 
and interesting. On the first day of the month, among sundry 
indefinite movements, several steps of "crawfishing" were taken, 
— a sort of retrograde creeping, pushing backward with the hands. 
Apparently there was no intention of getting anywhere by this, 
only a disposition to movement. On the second day the baby 
backed away from me when she wished to come to me, scolding 
with disappointment all the time. At other times she would back 
into the wall, to her own displeasure, and scold vigorously, all the 
time pushing back against the obstacle like a little engine unable to 
reverse itself These incidents seemed as if there was now some 
desire of locomotion, but an entire inability to guide or adapt her 
movements. The superior strength and importance of the arms as 
compared to the legs was evident: the disposition to use a simple 



^The position was puzzling to me, but Dr. Le Conte explains it as due to 
an extreme freedom of movement in tiie hip-joint, not impossible in an adult, 
though doubtless unusual. Even at seven years old, the child shows a certaij? 
tendency to turn the leg outward at the knee in sitting flat on the Hour. 



"Shinn.] Thi Development of a Child. 341 

pushing movement with the arms probably gave the backward 
motion, and the legs did little more than yield to this. In a day or 
two the baby's action in this "crawfishing" became quite free, and 
she would move some distance, "half creeping, half wriggling" 
(thirty-sixth week). In this week she would occasionally take a 
forward step or two on hands and knees, but with no idea of 
locomotion. In the thirty-seventh week, when sitting, instead of 
getting on hands and knees to creep to an object she desired, she 
would throw herself prone, stretch her arm to it, and sit up again. 
Late in the week, however, on the 258th day, real creeping 
began. She several times crept a foot or two forward, and once I 
saw her rolling an orange about the floor and creeping after it. I 
then placed her playthings before her, some four feet away. She 
looked earnestly at them, but made no effort to reach them till I 
drew them to within two feet; then she crept three or four steps,, 
then dropped prone and stretched her arm till she managed to get 
hold of one. Later in the day I called her to come to me, holding 
my arms and coaxing: she crept about a foot and a half, using her 
hands well but her knees awkwardly and far apart; then gave up 
and sat back on her heels, calling to me to take her, and would not 
move on for any coaxing; but when I leaned forward and shortened 
the distance, she took courage, and crept on till she could grasp my 
hand. She now seemed to understand that she could get some- 
where by creeping, and daily improved in it : " creeps several feet 
easily," I note the next day ; the next, she twice crept half way 
across the room to a door, hearing her grandfather's voice on the 
other side ; but for many weeks she would creep only short dis- 
tances, and always for an object of desire, not for the pleasure of 
the movement. 

From the first of the month, she would sometimes rise from 
hands and knees to hands and feet, and then would strain up- 
ward, as if trying to rise to her feet. Meanwhile, pulling to the 
feet by some hold above her had increased: she would climb 
up to get at her mother's face and ear, while undressed in her lap ; 
when held up a little in my lap she pulled to her feet and stood 
resting her weight partly on them, partly on her hands on my 
shoulders, much as she was in the habit of standing in the bath-tub; 



342 University of California. [Vol. i. 

held against her mother's shoulder, she would pull back, and try to 
stand in her lap; in the bath her one idea, as soon as she was 
placed in the tub, was to pull herself to her feet. On the 246th 
day she drew herself up by her mother's dress, with much wabbling 
of the knees. Later the same day she could not get to her feet in 
the bath when impeded by a sponge in her hand, but tried persist- 
ently till her mother took the sponge away, when she succeeded ; 
afterward she held to the edge of the bath with one hand and 
reached with the other for the sponge, keeping her feet; but twice 
at other times she fell, receiving a slight bump with unconcern. In 
the thirty-sixth week her skill in pulling up and balancing was 
visibly improved ; once she drew herself up by the edge of a basket 
into which she was set, and once by a box in which her playthings 
were kept, leaning over it (about a foot high) and holding with one 
hand, while she extracted what she wanted with the other. In all 
these cases, except the one instance of getting up by her mother's 
dress, she used an object lower than her standing height, {lifting her 
body, rather than pulling up by her arms-,) and so did not stand 
erect, but leaning over, resting much of her weight on her hands ; 
and this, with the wide planting of her feet, made balancing easy. 
Unlike sitting and creeping, this standing was quite consciously 
achieved, and the baby showed triumph and joy every time she 
succeeded in getting on her feet. 

She was now, in the middle of the ninth month, capable of 
a medley of movements that gave her singular joy. She would 
tumble about the floor or lawn, sitting up and lying down, raising 
herself to her knees and thence sitting back, raising herself to 
hands and knees, then to hands and feet, then settling down again 
to hands and knees; twice I saw her (257th day) raise herself to 
her feet and hands, and then raise one hand into the air and hold 
it so for some seconds, — a position very suggestive of rising 
directly to her feet. She would raise herself from hands and feet 
to her knees, or to one knee and one foot; she would sit on her 
heels; or on one heel, the other leg stretched out sidewise, so 
that she propped herself with the foot Once or twice when she 
was supported on hands and feet, raising her body as high as 
possible, she held her head very low, almost touching the carpet. 
I thought for some days that in creeping she used one foot and 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 343 

one knee; but when I had an opportunity to see her motions with- 
out any skirts (260th day) I noted that the leg movements were 
correct in creeping, except when now and then, after she had just 
been kneeling on one foot and one knee, she would drop down 
and begin to creep, in which case she would for a step or two 
use one knee only, dragging the other leg. Her kneeling did 
not seem to me quite regular; the legs seemed doubled up and 
awkward, but I could not make out just how: she could not keep 
the position many seconds, but would take it every few minutes, 
as she sprawled, rolled, crept, and sat about the floor; and she 
appeared to enjoy getting up to her knees as a daring achieve- 
ment, and would pat and wave her hands exultantly as she 
balanced thus. When creeping she would often stop and sit 
back, bringing herself to the sitting position described above. 

In spite of her joy in her movements, I was constantly 
impressed by the lack of adaptiveness and intelligence in them, 
even while to the observer they were plainly working slowly 
toward our own well-adapted means of locomotion. One day 
in the thirty-seventh week, for instance, (255th day) she had 
backed herself partly under a lounge, and there tried to rise from 
hands and knees to hands and feet: the lounge prevented, and 
she was disappointed at her failure, and tried over and over to 
rise, but had not sense enough to move forward clear of the 
obstacle; nor did it occur to her to look back and see what held 
her down.^ There was so little skill of movement, too, that as 
late as the last day of the thirty-eighth week, she slipped in 
creeping, and fell on her face, hurting her lip. 

Thus far (thirty-seventh week) standing did not enter much 
into the medley of movements, as the baby had not yet begun 
to get to her feet except by the help of a few specially favorable 

^Yet she had looked to see what touched the back of her head as early 
as the fifth month (p. 143); and the last day of the eighth month (242d) she 
had showed a good deal of adaptiveness. She had chanced to roll under her 
crib, and to roll and sprawl out on the other side, where she sat up, with some 
help from the edge of the crib, dropping a plaything in the effort; it rolled 
under the crib and the baby tried to lean forward and get it, and bumped her 
forehead; she drew back, then repeated the effort, but after several raps, at 
last bent her head over to one side almost to her lap, and then leaned under 
and reached the article, and drew back in the same way, keeping her head 
carefully lowered till it was clear of the crib. This was unusual cleverness, 
however. 



344 University of California. Vol. i. 

objects; but the desire to stand and skill in standing grew stead- 
ily, and on the last day of this week she twice drew herself to 
her feet by a chair, her knees shaking, to reach a favorite stuffed 
toy cat that stood on it; and after this, pulling up by chairs 
increased. In the thirty-eighth week, as she played about the 
lawn while we sat by with books or work, she interspersed her 
varied scrambling about with visits to us, to pull to her feet by 
chair or knee. What with the new freedom of movement, and 
the many objects of interest on the lawn, and the usual diffused 
joy in outdoors, her happiness at such times was indescribable. 
The joyous expansion of powers experienced by a baby who in 
one month has achieved the power of creeping, standing, and 
various minor movements, is something we can but dimly imagine 
from the exhilaration of acquiring a single new power of balance 
and motion, as in wheeling or swimming. The change in this 
baby's own consciousness within three weeks must have been 
enormous. 

On the 267th day, the last of the thirty-eighth week, some 
one looked up froni dinner to see the baby standing by a lounge, 
merely steadied by one hand pressed against it, while she waved 
the other with joy and pride. Her father sprang and caught her 
as she went down ; then set her on her feet, within the circle of 
his arms but without support, for a few seconds : her legs shook, 
but she stood without fear and with evident exhilaration. 

This month at last (in the thirty-sixth week) appeared walking 
movements when the baby was supported from above, with her 
soles lightly touching, — awkward and merely approximate move- 
ments at first, but fairly good in the thirty-seventh week. They 
continued whenever the opportunity was given, and afforded the 
child great pleasure. 



Tenth Month: Rapid and Free Creeping; Standing Alone; 
Stepping by a Support; Beginning of Climbing. 

The last two days of the ninth month, and for three days in the 
tenth, I was absent from home: and when I returned, I found the 
baby creeping rapidly and easily, and pulling to her feet persistently 



shinn.1 The Development of a Child. 345 

by chairs. The varied scrambhng about had disappeared, a sur- 
vival of the fittest having taken place in favor of creeping and 
standing. She laughed with pleasure as she crept; and her desire 
to stand was incessant and absorbing. Her toys were neglected • 
she was impatient of being held in arms, so eager was she to get 
to the floor and exercise her new powers. When laid on a blanket 
on veranda or lawn, she would at once start rapidly off creeping 
across tiles or grass, stopping to investigate plants, dead leaves, or 
gravel. 

She was clever and bold in getting to her feet, and would hold 
with only one hand, even leaning down sidewise to pick up some- 
thing, without losing balance. On the 278th day she climbed to 
her feet by a window-sill while holding a spool in each hand; and 
by the end of the week (the fortieth) it was common enough for 
her to pull herself to her feet while her hands were occupied with 
some object. She would creep, also, with her hands occupied, or 
while gesturing with one hand. 

When standing by a chair she would let go, — in the effort to 
stand alone, I thought at first; but by the second day after my 
return I made up my mind that it was done for the fun of falling: 
she would pull to her feet, laughing; then deliberately let go and 
come down sitting with a thud, and look up laughing and trium- 
phant. This amusing performance was kept up for several days. 
The sitting down was apparently in her mind as much a part of 
the exploit as the getting up, and the force with which she came 
down did not seem to frighten her in the least (see p. 205). 

On the 279th day, for the first time, (except in the one instance 
when her father set her on her feet,) she repeatedly stood quite 
alone for several seconds. This she did not by letting go her hold 
when already standing, but by raising herself to her feet with the 
help of a low body (her uncle's leg as he sat flat on the lawn, e. g.) 
and then, instead of remaining in a stooping position, as she had 
always done before when she had risen to her feet with the help of 
a low support, she straightened up, abandoning her support, and 
stood quite alone, showing great pleasure in the ability. In the 
next two or three days, by the beginning of the forty-first week, 
she proved able to stand a minute at a time when set in a corner, 
back to the wall, so that the pressure of her shoulders against the 



34^ University of Califor7iia. [Vol. i. 

wall steadied her; while she could stand for many seconds with 
but the slightest hold, — as the fold of a gown in her hand, — and 
for three or four seconds quite alone. 

In the forty-first week, she no longer let go her hold of a 
support on purpose to feel herself drop, but lowered herself care- 
fully, and with a good deal of skill, to the floor. Once (284th day) 
when absorbed in a pretzel she was sucking, she let go of the 
chair she held by, and stood some seconds alone, quite absently 
and unconsciously, then sat carefully down, — a more difficult 
thing to do than to let herself down with the help of the chair. 
In the latter part of the week, it was not uncommon for her to let 
go of a support and stand alone absent-mindedly, when interested 
in something she held: she would rarely do it purposely when 
standing by a chair; but when at some one's knee, where she felt 
more confidence, she would sometimes now let go in order to try 
to stand alone (though her deliberate efforts to stand alone were 
still usually, as the week before, when she had lifted her body 
erect, thus quitting her support). She had incurred bumps from 
the time she began to roll, and in creeping had often collided 
sharply with objects, nor had falls been infrequent even thus far in 
standing; and she had evidently acquired a certain amount of 
caution. Perhaps this was in part instinctive, as in her refusing to 
be coaxed into creeping over the edge of the table, though our 
arms were beneath to catch her. Once (284th day), having failed 
to sit down as carefully as usual, in her eagerness to creep to her 
father, she rolled over with a bump that frightened her. On the 
whole, however, she was very slightly troubled by bumps or falls, 
and her caution did not amount to timidity. She showed signs of 
fear on the 283d day, when she had pulled to her feet by a wire 
dictionary stand, which rocked under her clutch; yet she often 
fearlessly pulled up by rocking-chairs. 

On the 285th day, she deliberately experimented in standing 
alone as long as she could. I sat on the grass beside her, and 
she would help herself up by my knee, lift her body erect, bal- 
ancing with outstretched arms in great glee as long as she could, 
then come down plump on the grass and try it again. I had not 



shinn.] The Developjuent of a Child. 347 

a watch at hand, but estimated by counting that the longest period 
for which she kept her balance was about seven seconds.^ 

Once in this week, seeing the stair door open, she crept to it 
and looked upstairs, then got to her feet without anything to hold 
to or rest her hands on, merely steadying herself by the door- 
frame, and then turned around to look at the people in the room, — 
a noticeable advance in equilibrium, though, forgetting in her inter- 
est to cling to the door-frame, she lost her balance at once. 

I noticed at this time — forty-first week — an intangible 
but great increase in the baby's appearance of comprehension 
and mental alertness: the new possession of herself had opened 
somehow a new era in her psychic life. She often wore a puz- 
zled look, — a curious drawing out and straightening at the 
corners of the mouth. An increased desire of exploring was 
becoming apparent. Before this she had investigated objects as 
they came in her way; now she began to have a passion (which 
lasted and increased for weeks and months) to go and find what 
there was to see. Her creeping, which steadily increased in speed 
and distance, was now purposely utilized to satisfy her curiosity. 
On the 284th day, e. g., she watched her grandfather as he left 
the room; then after sitting gravely a moment, crept to the window 
and climbed up to look after him. On the lawn, she would leave 
her blanket and make for the edge of the grass to finger the gravel of 
the walk, or feel over the bark of the trees. She crept into the hall 
and explored it, sitting down in each corner to survey it, and 
looking up the walls. She cared little for toys, but occupied 
herself on the floor for hours together by creeping from chair 
to chair, from person to person, pulling up to her feet, and setting 
herself down again cautiously and cleverly; usually smiling and 
crowing over her success, and sometimes coming to us for applause 
and caresses. She was unwilling to be taken up from the floor 
and put into her high-chair for meals, and wished to take her 
milk standing on the floor, interspersing doses of it with play. 
She liked to creep fast away from us, laughing, when she thought 

■^ It is useful in keeping record of the Instinctive Movements, of Attention, 
and perhaps some other categories, to learn to count seconds; for a baby 
gives no notice beforehand when he is going to do something that you will 
wish to time, and one is often caught without a watch ready. 



348 University of California. [Vol. i. 

we were going to pick her up. Her overflowing joy on the lawn 
at this time I have described elsewhere (p. 250-1), and even indoors 
her habitual happiness was notable. 

In the forty -second week, her delight in standing alone 
increased, and the length of time for which she could keep her 
balance grew. She continued the voluntary exercises in standing 
beside me on the lawn, and once, on the 292d day, becoming 
interested in looking at something while on her feet, kept her 
balance for about a quarter of a minute; she could stand longer 
when her attention was diverted from her own equilibrium. When 
trying to recover her balance after she had begun to topple, she 
would use her arms, circling with them exactly as a grown per- 
son does when almost falling; the movement (as well as the mere 
extending of the arms in balancing noticed the week before) seems 
to be highly instinctive. When she finally came down with a jolt 
she would break into a peal of laughter. 

In this week, she was fond of standing for many minutes at 
a low window and looking out, watching for the dog and other 
objects of interest, — another source of mental stimulus and 
pleasure, obtainable by herself independently, which the power 
of creeping and standing had opened to her. 

On the 293d day occurred what may perhaps be regarded 
as the first climbing, consisting merely in letting herself down by 
her arms. She had been seated in a large rocking-chair, and had 
squirmed about till she was lying on her face, with her feet to 
the edge, and then let herself skilfully down to the floor. 
We put her back into the chair, but she could not get herself 
again into position to drop down; after we placed her in position, 
she did so very well. Before this she was for a long time 
very happy in getting up on her feet and exploring the chair- 
back, leaning to look over it till the chair tipped, to her pleasure; 
the feeling of an unstable footing did not seem to trouble her at all. 

Kneeling, which had declined since she learned to stand, had 
not been entirely given up. In the forty-second week (291st day) 
I saw the baby drop from her feet to her knees, while standing 
by a chair. She was naked at the time, so that I saw the move- 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 349 

ment well, and the kneeling was quite perfect. In saying that 
kneeling is not acquired till long after standing, Professor Preyer 
must mean that it is not until long after a child can stand firmly 
that he can drop without support from a standing to a kneeling 
position, — but this is, indeed, not quite easy to a grown person. 
My niece rose to a kneeling position before she could stand, and 
lowered herself to her knees, with some support, before she could 
fairly stand alone. 

At the end of the forty-second week, the baby was absent for 
five days on a railroad trip with her parents, and was of course a 
good deal in their arms. On her return, 299th day, and in the 
few remaining days of the tenth month, she showed some loss 
of disposition to stand and creep. She crept for shorter distances, 
and only to reach some desired place or object; and when the 
-object was at some distance, say twelve or fifteen feet, though she 
would creep to it when no attention was paid her, she would 
stop if she was noticed and ask to be carried. She did not 
desire to be held, however, and was happy in playing about the 
floor with some one near by, creeping short distances, getting to 
her feet and down again, and exploring as before, — especially 
in new rooms. She had not improved in standing at all. 

She had, however, made one notable advance, — she proved 
able, on her return, to step along by a chair, holding to the seat. 
I had been told of her doing this nearly four weeks earlier, but 
liad never been able to see it; and if there was no mistake about 
the fact, it must have been a case of accidental or mechanical 
anticipation of a power, such as is related above under the 
subject of Grasping (p. 307). 

Her walking movements when held had somewhat improved 
during the month, but were still irregular, and she showed no 
great disposition to make them. 

On the last day of the month occurred what may perhaps 
more properly be called the first climbing than the mere letting 
herself down by her arms eleven days earlier: it was, however, 
to a considerable extent induced. The stairs had for many days 
in the latter part of the tenth month interested the baby, and she 



35^ ' University of California. [Vol. i. 

crept to them and hovered about them, — not so much as if 
she was desirous of cHmbing, as because they made a surface for 
investigation yet untried: and on this day (the 304th) as she 
hovered about the lower step some one helped her to put her 
knee up on it. The baby thereupon pulled herself up to the 
step, and with similar help up two more. I then set a candle 
on a higher stair, and desiring to reach it, the baby ascended a 
fourth step without help, quite cleverly. 

Eleventh Month: Progress in Standing Alone, Climbing, and 
Stepping by a Support. 

The arrest of progress in standing lasted nearly three weeks in 
all, extending some ten days into the eleventh month; but there 
was no decline, so far as my record shows : the baby seems to have 
stood up as much as before, and with conspicuous joy and pride. 
Her pretty elation when set on her feet in a corner is especially 
noted on the 312th day: she looked from one to another for notice, 
calling across the room to members of the family, and leaning for- 
ward to make sure that each one saw her. That she was able to 
lean forward thus (and also to pat her hands) without losing her 
balance, showed a slowly increasing steadiness on her feet, even 
during this period of apparently arrested progress. 

During the same interval very slight progress was made in any 
other movement. She appears to have continued to edge along a 
few steps now and then when holding by a chair, and after the 
309th day would step the length of a lounge, holding on with one 
hand. She would pass from chair to chair, resting a hand on one 
and reaching as far as possible to touch the next one, and so step 
across to that with the slightest steadying touch; but she ventured 
no step alone. 

The disposition to creep declined somewhat, though when the 
baby wished to get anything she could creep quite rapidly. On 
the 307th day she made quite an advance in intelligence in steer- 
ing, so to speak. She was in the habit of creeping to me when I 
called her; but if I called when she was on the floor and I at the 
opposite end of a table, instead of creeping to me she would creep 
to the table and, getting to her feet, would stretch, up to peer over 
it at me, as if she did not see how she could reach me through the 



Shinn.j The Development of a Child. 35 1 

obstacle. On this day I leaned far out, so that she could see me 
behind her mother, who sat at the side of the table, and then she 
caught the idea of creeping around to me. A week later I tried it 
again, and again had to help her by leaning out to the side; but 
afterward she often crept around to me. On the 312th day she 
crept under the table while the family sat at it, to find her grand- 
mother, and often did so afterward, directing herself to the proper 
place very well. 

With the 314th day came a sort of fresh start in several direc- 
tions, almost like the expenditure of accumulated force. On this 
day the baby lifted herself to her feet by resting her hands on a 
stone coping not six inches high, — the first time that I had seen 
her raise herself to stand alone unless some one was close at hand. 
The same day I set her on her feet in the middle of the lawn : she 
was proud and interested, and kept her balance about a quarter of 
a minute, longer than she had ever stood while attending to her 
equilibrium, though three weeks earlier she had stood as long 
when interested in something else. 

The next day (315th) several notable advances were made in 
standing, climbing, creeping, and walking, — as well as in some 
mental activities, not recorded in this chapter. Much of the day 
was spent outdoors on the lawn, where her great enjoyment 
seemed to stimulate activity in every way. As she played about 
me here, I looked up from my work to see her standing quite 
alone in the middle of the lawn, near no object by which she 
could have raised herself: she must have risen directly from feet 
and hands. She was not seen to do this again before the twelfth 
month. Once as I was preparing a loquat for her to eat, she got 
to her feet holding to me, and in her eagerness let go and stood 
before me waiting till the fruit was ready, and while I fed it to 
her in bits, — a time which I determined pretty closely at one 
and a half minutes. She seemed tired then, and sank partly down 
to a kneeling or sitting position, but at once rose again and stood, 
steadying herself by resting a hand on my wrist, or grasping my 
sleeve, for about five minutes more. Over and over she stood 
alone a quarter-minute, without the aid of diversion of attention 
from the standing. The same day I saw her pull herself up on 



352 University of California. Vol. i- 

tiptoes to lOok over the seat of her high-chair; and after this, 
standing on tiptoe to reach or see something is repeatedly men- 
tioned. In spite of the marked improvement in equiUbrium, how- 
ever, she had an especially bad upset on this 315th day, losing hold 
and balance as she stood by the lounge, and going over backward 
with a sharp bump, which frightened her unusually. 

Until to-day there had been no progress in climbing since the 
small and induced advance made ten days before: but now, as I 
sat on the floor, the baby put up one foot into my lap, holding to 
my shoulder, then with much difficulty and many efforts drew up 
the other, knee first. This she did three or four times. She also 
stepped over my leg, holding by my arm, the first time she had 
lifted her foot to set it over an obstacle. 

On the lawn the same day, as she played beside me, I set an 
article that I did not wish her to reach on the other side of me : 
she sat and looked at it a few seconds, then turned and crept back 
around me to get it ; a decided advance in locomotor idea of direc- 
tion. As she came near to it, I set it again on the other side of 
me, and this time she scrambled over my knees to it. After this, 
in playing about me, she scrambled ever me or into my lap 
several times. 

One more achievement of this active day was the discovery 
that she could push a chair before her, which she twice did, for a 
couple of steps. 

The next day, 316th, as the baby stood alone on the lawn, she 
saw some one bringing a much-desired glass of water, and in her 
eagerness took one almost unconscious step forward and promptly 
collapsed on the grass. 

At a neighbor's, she occupied hersdt for a long time in letting 
herself down backward from a doorstep, and climbing up it again. 

These three days of marked revival of activity brought the 
aby to the end of the forty-fifth -week. During the rest of the 
month her progress in climbing was the most striking trait of 
motor development. On the 317th day she climbed of her own 
accord up two steps of the stairs. Later in the day I set her at it 
again, and moved on up the stairs before her to induce her to 
follow, though I did not urge her at all. I wished to see how far 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 353 

she could go. She toiled on to the top of the flight, fifteen steps, 
with a rise of 6^ inches; once she fell backward and was caught 
by her mother, who followed behind for that purpose; and two 
or three times she slipped back and lost a step, but kept at it 
diligently. She was greatly pleased to have accomplished it, 
though out of breath: she pulled to her feet by the post on the 
landing, hesitated, made some motions to creep down head first, 
then seeing the remaining steps across the landing (five in number) 
crept over to them and mounted them. All the way up she occa- 
sionally grunted with exertion as she drew herself up a step, and 
always uttered a satisfied exclamation on achieving it. She did 
not use her knee this time, but placed one foot on the step, reached 
forward and put her hands on the step next above, and so pulled 
the other foot up, thus climbing rather than creeping. She was 
very exultant on reaching the second floor, shouting and laughing. 
She got to her feet, looked longingly at the garret stairs, and ran 
her eyes up them to the landing; but before she reached the foot 
was diverted from them by the sight of a room door open, invit- 
ing to exploration. 

After this she climbed upstairs again almost daily, at first slip- 
ping several times, and getting discouraged and asking to be taken, 
on the lower stair, but eager to go on after she reached the land- 
ing. By the latter part of the forty-sixth week I note neither slips 
nor discouragement. In the forty-seventh week, she lost interest in 
the stairs for a few days, but before the end of the week seems to 
have returned to the exercise, and to have become skilful in climb- 
ing, — perhaps caring for it now merely as a means to reach the 
second floor, no longer as a diversion in itself. She could go up 
easily and rapidly, rarely slipping, and with but two or three 
pauses. Twice she started up the garret stairs also, but was 
diverted from her purpose half way up. She never fell backward 
after the first ascent, on the 317th day. At a neighbor's, on the 
331st day, she found the stairs, and climbed up many times, and set 
off to explore the upper rooms. The same day at home she several 
times climbed up five or six steps, then turned and climbed down 
quite skilfully. By the end of the month, in the forty-eighth week, 
she climbed up and down stairs rapidly and easily, without any 
help, and wished to do it many times a day: she would crawl 



354 University of Calif oriiia. [Vol. i. 

persistently to the foot of the stairs and start up. Her method of 
getting down was to slide backward from step to step, just as she 
did with increasing ease in getting down from a lap. She never 
slipped, but as she was disposed to stop and stand alone boldly on 
each step, and was not yet secure on her feet, there was some risk 
in climbing, and some one always kept close beside her: once only, 
on the last day of the month (the 335th day), she lost balance in 
standing thus on the stair, and was frightened, though I caught her. 
Meanwhile a remarkable disposition to climb was evident in 
other ways. Standing by a chair, tub, or other piece of furniture, 
the baby would put up one foot against it, seeking some higher 
support (forty-sixth week). The 319th day, sitting in a chair by 
her bath-tub, which was supported on a box, she set one foot on the 
edge of the box and one on the rung of the chair, and leaned over 
to paddle in the water, — kept from falling by me, but resting her 
weight on her feet. In the forty-seventh week, when she came to 
any obstacle, she constantly lifted a foot as if to step on or over it. 
She lifted her foot thus when leaning over the edge of the box 
where her playthings were kept ; when her grandfather lay down 
on the floor to play with her, she kept trying to step up on him. 
She could, in this forty-seventh week, manage a step of six or 
seven inches, with a good hold above, as on the stairs, and could 
creep over any three or four inch obstacle. The last day of the 
week she climbed over a leg that was put out as a barrier, a foot 
above the floor: she threw her body against it, tilted over after 
several attempts, and slid down head first. 

Meanwhile standing was persistent, though the baby's steadi- 
ness of balance improved but slowly. She was fond of standing 
by rocking-chairs and making them rock, either by leaning against 
them, or by slapping them, which did not seem to disturb her 
equilibrium. Once (319th day) she persisted in standing up in 
a hammock, and refused to hold to me, balancing, recovering, 
tipping against me, and standing again, while I protected her 
from falling as best I could. In her baby-carriage, she liked to 
climb to her feet while it was in motion, and lean far out to the 
side, or forward over the leather strap that protected her from falling. 
She insisted on standing to be wiped after her bath, instead of 



shinn.] The Developmeyil of a Child. 355 

sitting in her mother's lap. She rejoiced still in standing at the 
window, looking out and laughing at the sights. The 320th day 
she sneezed while standing alone, without losing balance. The 
323d day she stood fearlessly by the wire dictionary holder whose 
tremulousness had alarmed her a few weeks before, and tried to 
get its cord off. She was fond of getting to her feet in our laps 
to play with our hair, etc. By the forty-seventh week she could 
stand a minute or two quite alone at any time, but was apt to drop 
down sooner, to avoid a fall: she had lost her sense of novelty 
and achievement in balancing, and no longer tried to stand as 
long as she could, but was constantly standing up and sitting 
down; when on her feet for a long time she kept her hand on 
some support, however slight. At the beginning of the forty- 
eighth week I noticed an increased firmness in her standing, and 
especially when she was occupied in reaching for or holding some 
object, and unconscious of her equilibrium. On the 331st day, 
e. g., she stood alone by a basket of toys, leaned over, reached 
down and took out what she wished, straightened up again, and 
then shook hard the objects she held in both hands, all without 
disturbing her balance. 

While standing showed so much improvement, and climbing 
had reached a considerable skill and was eagerly desired, walking 
interested the baby scarcely at all. She continued to edge about 
a good deal, holding to chairs or lounge, but there was no dis- 
position to forward stepping. When she was held from above, 
however, she would walk forward with clumsy alternate move- 
ments, and we gradually allowed her to take more and more of 
her own weight in doing this; but she showed no pleasure in it 
and soon would wish to drop down again: she seemed to find the 
movement scarcely more normal than a puppy does when one 
leads him by his fore paws. The first day of the forty-seventh 
week, however, standing beside me as I sat on the floor, she took 
my hand and stepped forward, carrying the hand, with my arm 
outstretched, almost as far backward as it would go. This was more 
like a real disposition to walk than any she had hitherto shown. 
A few days later she began to push chairs about a little, stepping 
after; but she would not take the step till she had to, leaning far 

24 



356 University of California. [Vol, i, 

forward as the chair moved: what she cared for was evidently 
moving the chair, not walking. At the end of the month we 
found that she could walk pretty well held only by one hand, 
but she did not care to. 

Early in the month (307th day) I had noticed a tendency to 
rise imperfectly to hands and feet, instead of hands and knees, in 
creeping fast. The tendency increased throughout the month, 
and on the 323d day I noticed that every time the baby started 
off it was on hands and feet, but that after a few steps she would 
drop to hands and knees. She seemed to like the movement on 
hands and feet better, but to be unable to keep it up as long. 

Besides this rising to hands and feet, sitting back on her heels 
remained regularly from the many positions connected with creep- 
ing in the ninth month. 

An incident of the 324th day gives a fair idea of the extent of 
the baby's command of her body in the latter part of the eleventh 
month. As she sat in my lap by the lounge, she saw her uncle's 
sun helmet on the lounge, and climbed over from my lap to the 
lounge to get it, pulled it down with trouble, let herself carefully 
down to the floor, and lost hold of the sun helmet, which rolled away. 
Some diversion occurred here, but presently the baby crept over 
and pulled the clumsy burden back to my side, climbed up half into 
my lap, and held the sun helmet up awkwardly for me to put on. 

Her enjoyment in playing around and using her powers was 
still notable: she was happy by the hour exploring from room to 
room about the floor, lingering over interesting objects, shouting 
and calling, getting to her feet by chairs and down again, standing 
up by the book shelves to pull out books, and occasionally sitting 
dow-i with one to turn the leaves over carefully, climbing the stairs, 
edging along by chairs and window-sills and creeping across gaps, 
standing by the window and looking out, reaching up on tiptoe 
to examine bureau-handles, etc. If I sat down on the floor near 
where she was playing, she would creep to me, and holding by my 
arm or knee, pull to her feet and scramble about and over me, 
sometimes trying to play with my hair, sometimes merely clinging 
and scrambling, amusing herself by standing up and sitting down. 



shinn.] . The Development of a Child. 357 

etc. Outdoors, her happiness in getting about was still greater, 
but was now somewhat marred by her desire to ramble off for 
longer distances and over more various surfaces than could be 
allowed, so that she would beg to be carried in order to get away 
from her limits, and then constantly wish to be put down to creep; 
if she had been allowed, she would have made her way by creeping 
all across the garden. When taken out in the baby-carriage, she 
would lean out at the side, desiring to get out and use her own 
powers. 

Twelfth Month: Raising Self to the Feet; Climbing; Beginning 
of Walking Alone. 

In the first week of the twelfth month the mother and grand- 
mother told me that the baby was raising herself to her feet in the 
middle of the floor constantly and easily, — a thing that she must 
have done on the lawn once, three weeks earlier, but that no one 
had seen her do till now; and I did not see her do it for ten days 
more, and even then she tipped over immediately. Her standing 
was certainly quite firm: on the 340th day, e. g., she rejoiced in 
standing up at the front of a wagon to see the horses go, and let 
go of the dashboard to wave her hands as she shouted. She 
could bend down and recover while standing (fiftieth week); and 
though I do not find any note of longer standing than a minute at 
a time, this was doubtless because she did not find it comfortable 
or interesting to stand still longer, not because this was the limit of 
her ability. 

Climbing up and down stairs was a delight all the month. The 
stairs were among the things most joyously recognized on her 
return from a few days' absence in the fiftieth week. She climbed 
as before, planting her feet, and slid down backward ; sometimes 
she amused herself by climbing up a few steps, then sliding rapidly 
down. Late in the month, 356th day, having climbed to the top of 
the stairs, she turned and slid down, sometimes head first, some- 
times feet first, quite recklessly; this time she might have fallen 
once or twice had I not caught her, but as a rule she was very firm 
and safe in these movements, and needed no help at all, though 
some one always kept close by her. On the 361st day she started 



358 University of California. [Vol. i. 

to creep down, and crept down four steps perfectly well, once or 
twice ; the next day she crept all the way down, without help, and 
rapidly. In other ways she showed steadily and increasingly the 
desire to climb : standing in the bath-tub, she repeatedly put a foot 
over the edge; on a mattress about two feet high, she crept to the 
edge, looked over, turned round, and let herself down backward. 

During the early part of the month she crept about half the 
time on hands and feet, but not for many feet continuously ; later, 
the habit declined, but the decline of all creeping was not far off now. 

In the forty-ninth week, the baby walked easily when steadied 
by one hand, but moved her feet clumsily, and once showed a 
tendency to bring one foot to the other, instead of past. She now 
first showed a little pride in it. On the 342d day she was expect- 
ing to go upstairs with me, and as I led her toward the stairs she 
walked quite well, forgetting herself in her eagerness to go with me. 

Up to this time, she had been wearing little soft kid moccasins, 
but now low shoes with soles were put on her feet (346th day) 
which may have affected her walking somewhat. 

The 347th day, while going from chair to chair, she twice let 
go of one chair, stood hesitantly, made a movement forward, even a 
slight hitch forward with her foot, then gave up the idea of ventur- 
ing to take a step alone, and dropped to the floor and crept, though 
the space was but a few inches. So for several days more: she 
was happy by the hour edging and creeping about the room freely, 
from one object to another; but she would not take a step alone, 
even when a single short one would traverse the distance she 
wished to go. On the 350th day her mother coaxed her once or 
twice into it (as was reported to me), but the day after she would 
not do it. On the 353d day, again, I was told that she had walked 
three or four steps, and this time spontaneously; and this I was 
able to verify the next day, when if she was set against the wall 
and told to walk, she would step forward. She did it with much 
sense of insecurity, tottering and taking very short steps, her legs 
spreading more widely at each one. Once, instead of catching her, 
I tested how far she could go, and found that she could keep her 
feet for six steps. She did not give up and sit down, but went on 
as far as her legs would carry her, with visible sense of achieve- 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 359 

ment, tremulous, pleased, half-afraid, half-proud; and when she 
subsided to the floor at the seventh step, she was not at all 
frightened, but willing to get up and go on, coming down as before 
after six steps. She could not find courage to try again for several 
days, however: on the 361st day she tried once, but fell down after 
a single step. She showed desire to try again, creeping back to 
the spot against the wall from which she had started, and standing 
there, but after laughing, waving her arms, and making a false 
start, she dropped down and crept. In the four days that remained 
before the close of her first year, she made practically no more 
progress in walking; yet sometimes when she forgot what she was 
doing, she would take a step or two to a desired spot. She was 
really perfectly able to take three or four, from support to support, 
for she was strong and steady on her feet; but she seemed to have 
lost her little access of interest in walking, and to prefer to creep. 
It was curious to compare her doubtful beginning of walking in 
these last days of the year with her bold and free climbing and 
sliding on the stairs. 

Thirteenth Month : Walking Alone ; Climbing ; Decline of 

Creeping. 

With the beginning of the second year, walking at last began 
to develop with energy. On the first day of the year the child 
walked the length of a room, to the foot of the stairs, (some 
eighteen feet) holding lightly to my hand, and then walked upstairs 
in the same way. She stepped up nicely and easily as far as the 
landing, then lost interest in walking, in her desire to creep down 
the steps. A few days later she could walk freely holding to one 
finger. She was still cautious about walking quite alone, but 
wished to be on her feet, moving about and amusing herself, all the 
time, and was restless when in the lap or the baby-carriage; and she 
would from time to time readily enough leave a support for a few 
steps. She also went about a good deal pushing her little chair, 
which was of course light and easy to move. During the fifty-third 
week there were some fluctuations in walking alone, but improve- 
ment on the whole; and on the first day of the fifty-fourth week I 
saw her walk about three feet alone. She was now becoming disin- 



360 University of California. [Vol. i. 

clined to get down and creep, and was disposed to take some one's 
finger and walk across the room instead. She walked clumsily, 
spreading her legs and rolling a little: but the rolling gait proved 
to be a permanent trick, which in her seventh year was to a great 
extent corrected by exercises/ 

On the 376th day I was told that she had walked alone across 
a room, some twelve feet, quite spontaneously; the next day she 
walked half-way across the same room to me, straddling and 
rolling, and making grimaces indicative of much pride. The next 
day she walked to me across the whole width of the room, smiling 
and proud, walking faster and faster till she was nearly running, 
and threw herself into my arms with laughter and kisses. Walk- 
ing with the help of some one's hand was also quite advanced in 
this week (fifty-fourth): the 377th day, e. g., she took me by the 
hand and led me across two rooms'to the place where her bonnet 
was kept, then after getting the bonnet on, led me to the outer 
door. At fifty- four weeks old creeping was almost abandoned, 
except when she was in a special hurry; then she would drop down 
and creep. She liked to utilize a chair to walk by when one was 
in reach, but she would walk alone whenever necessary, and would 
even lift her arms, or go through gestures while walking; she liked 
to walk carrying a weight, a doll or book. In the fifty-fifth week 
she walked much and securely, keeping her footing over slight 
obstacles, or a rough surface: a door-sill, or a newspaper lying 
on the floor, e. g., did not seem to trouble her at all, and she kept 
her feet without difficulty in walking over a tray of almonds spread 
out to dry. She turned, leaned over to pick up objects, dragged 
chairs and her tin tub about, and otherwise showed security on her 
feet. Having overthrown a chair once accidentally, she did it after- 
ward on purpose, without disturbing her own balance by the 
exertion. Often she partly lost her balance, and recovered; often 

^ It is worth while to notice that a child, even of healthy and normal develop- 
ment, whose strength of back and limbs is unquestionable, may have defects 
of carriage long before these could have been produced by the causes so pro- 
lific in later childhood, (such as improper clothing, seats of wrong size or shape, 
and careless habits) ; and that his natural activity can not always be trusted to 
give him symmetry and grace. The pedagogic importance of this fact I shall 
speak of later. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 361 

she went down, but did not seem to mind. She crept far less than 
she walked. She led people about wherever she wished them to 
go. When supported under the arms from above, or even once 
when holding by her mother's hand, she walked upstairs taking 
alternate steps, like a grown person. Her appearance of pride in 
walking had nearly disappeared, and she took it as a matter of 
course. She played about, trotting round the room, enjoying her 
own motions and examining the properties of everything, — experi- 
menting in pushing things about and overturning them, coming to 
us and looking at our dresses, ribbons, etc., asking the names of 
objects by an inquiring grunt; looking over her books; looking out 
of the window and calling to the dog; going ofif exploring, and 
bringing objects to us ; hanging about us to ofTer kisses, and then 
off to explore a closet; and so on by the hour. 

In the fifty-sixth week, I noticed that she dragged one foot a 
little in walking, but it seems to have been a passing trick. She 
would now, when supported from above, walk downstairs, but not 
alternately like grown people, as she did in walking upstairs. The 
increase in steadiness, and speed, and amount of walking was 
surprising. She would be all the morning outdoors, toddling 
about, exploring the garden paths. In one morning, she toddled 
along the paths a distance that amounted to over two hundred feet 
(with intervals of sitting down to examine the ground), besides 
making several shorter trips. The space in garden and shrubbery, 
traversed by paths, is nearly a quarter acre, quite irregularly dis- 
posed, so that there was much opportunity for rambling up this 
path and down that. Her joy in this independence was remark- 
able, and she could not bear to be restricted, but was always 
anxious to get down and on her own feet. It was her greatest 
interest, and an inexhaustible one. She would toddle along, go 
down on the ground to examine something, ask its name if it was 
new to her, get up and trot on a little way, then down again; and 
so on all day long. One day in this week she escaped supervision 
and got outdoors by herself, and was captured jubilant. Once 
when outdoors she evaded her mother, toddled round to another 
door, climbed upstairs by herself to me, and led me downstairs and 
outdoors with her. She coaxed all day to be allowed to go out- 
doors, using all her arts. My notes on other subjects are full of 



362 University of California. [Vol. i. 

references to her going here and there freely; indeed, walking may 
be said to have been completely mastered long before the end of 
the thirteenth month, baby-like as her gait was. 

Now and then, when eager, she would increase her speed (as 
early as the fifty-fifth week) to a sort of trot : in the fifty-sixth week 
she began the play of running away from people, with shouts of 
laughter. 

She persisted meanwhile in trying to climb, and at fifty-three 
weeks old succeeded in getting out of the little tin bath-tub; she set 
one leg over, and after a good deal of doubt, and lifting the wrong 
one (the one already out), at last got the other one over. She con- 
stantly and easily slid down backward from lounges, and over steps; 
yet I find occasional references to her asking to be set down. She 
climbed up into her little rocking-chair (fifty-fifth week) and stood 
holding by the back and rocking it. She was as fond as ever of 
climbing the stairs, and if she could not go outdoors, coaxed for 
the stairs as the next best thing. Now and then she evaded guard 
and came up to me alone, always quite safely. Once (fifty-fifth 
week) she began to scramble down headlong, but after slipping and 
rolling, reversed herself and slid down backward as usual. At 
fifty-five weeks old, she would slide thus off a bed, feet first, but 
not as safely as from a lounge, since the bed was so high that she 
would fall if we did not catch her. She liked walking upstairs 
better than climbing, but did not try it unless supported from 
above. In the fifty-sixth week, she had a trick of ejaculating 
constantly, "Shush! shush! shush!" as she climbed the stairs, — 
apparently a sort of vocal accompanying movement. 

Fourteenth Month: Secure "Walking; Beginning of Running; 
Progress in Climbing. 

During the fourteenth month the development of steadiness and 
endurance in walking was considerable : the child's constant desire 
was to walk about outdoors, and next to go upstairs. All day long 
she would beg to go outdoors, and once there, would patter around, 
sitting down and examining objects, then up and on again. Her 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 363 

usual walk was about 55 yards long, — along the veranda and 
a gravel drive, up one garden path, and down another; but from 
day to day she would annex some new strip of territory. One day 
in the fifty-seventh week she made three trips, of some 140 yards, 
85 yards, and 180 yards respectively, — the third one after a nap, 
and holding by my finger. This was probably a fair sample day at 
thirteen months old. 

Her speed increased perceptibly during the month ; I note in the 
sixtieth week that she "almost runs" when eager; and the expres- 
sion "trotted about" occurs now and then throughout the month. 
Her gait was evidently decidedly advanced beyond the toddling of 
the thirteenth month. Once, when she was sixty weeks old, I use 
the word "running" of her coming to me, guided by my voice in 
the dark. 

Her increased security of balance was evident from her ability 
(as early as the fifty-ninth week) to trot about firmly in the dark, 
without stumbling. She walked boldly over slight irregularities, 
as doorsills, without the slightest trip. Still, she would often catch 
her foot, turn too quickly, or trip herself somehow, and sit down 
suddenly; she rarely fell flat or took any hurt, and usually laughed 
at these upsets. Especially in reaching her arms up, to express 
desire for something above her, she was apt to sit down backward 
(fifty-eighth week). She could stoop over forward and handle 
things on the floor, sometimes for many minutes (fifty-seventh 
week) with ease and security; and could lean far forward (fifty- 
eighth week), to look through a door, e. g., without any risk to 
balance. . ~ 

Climbing was a leading interest. Once in the fifty-eighth week, 
in climbing downstairs, she started face forward, sitting down on 
a step and putting her feet over, then rising and standing on the 
lower step, sitting down and putting her feet over again, etc. This, 
I think, was the method she used in getting down the doorsteps, 
which she did easily and safely; but it was evidently too tedious for 
a long flight of steps, and after thus descending two or three, she 
gave it up, and turned around and slid down swiftly and securely 
backward, as usual. A few days later in the same week, and again 
in the next, I note her liking for stepping down like a grown person. 



364 University of California. [Vol. t. 

holding some one's hand. It was evident she did not hke the 
sHding down backward, but found no other way so quick and safe. 
In the sixtieth week she tried hitching from step to step, and went 
down the whole flight thus, without any help, and with ease and 
security. This saved the inconvenience of rising and sitting down 
again on every step, but cost her a good deal of jolting, and was 
not kept up long. In the fifty-ninth week I found she could 
climb the stairs in the dark as well as in the light. 

In the fifty-eighth week a chest that usually guarded a low 
window (almost level with the floor) chanced to be moved, and the 
child tried to get out of the window (some two feet from the 
ground), and fell out. This made her cautious, but for a day or 
two she hovered about it, and made essays at climbing out, but did 
not quite dare trust herself to do so. Another day in the same 
week she amused herself by climbing up on a footstool (holding to 
a chair) and standing on it. In the sixtieth week she could get off 
a lounge or low chair with ease, and was ambitious of climbing up 
on them as well. One day early in the week she was much elated 
at finding that she could mount a small trunk, a foot high; she 
climbed up, sat down on top, and climbed off, many times. When 
I came home she was proud to show me the achievement, and sat 
throned on the trunk looking at me with a most elated expression; 
she wished to keep up the ascending and descending for some time, 
and kept pointing back to the trunk after she had left it. Later in 
the week she succeeded in climbing on a lounge (15 inches high), 
by chancing to try a place where the cushion was depressed with 
long use; she made many efforts at other places, but the slight 
difference in height was sufficient to defeat her. 

In this month, and later, she was impatient of being held (see 
Muscular Sensation, p. 185). As she was, however, increasingly 
interested in understanding and using speech, she was on the 
whole willing to sit longer in our laps, while thus entertained.^ 



^In this month and the preceding, a marked trait was the delay — sometimes 
many seconds — that the child would make before seizing an object offered, or . 
responding to a suggestion. It seemed as if she were considering the matter, 
but even when the proposition was highly agreeable, and the assent sudden 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 365 



Fifteenth Month to End of Third Half- Year. 

At fourteen months old the child was in a rudimentary way in 
possession of the principal race movements of locomotion and 
equilibrium. Her running, it is true, was no more than a clumsy 
trot, to which her steps would quicken in eagerness, as in hurrying 
to meet me at the door; but I doubt whether at any time within 
the first three years it was the real gait of the adult runner, with 
the spring from the foot. Certainly it was not until she was 
directly instructed, in the sixth year, that she learned to keep the 
heel lifted in running, instead of bringing down the sole flat at 
€very step. Some children do much better than this: a little 
cousin of hers ran swiftly and correctly in the second year. 

It is worth notice that unlike Preyer's child, who began with 
running and afterward acquired the more difficult art of balancing 
at a slow pace, my niece came to running by gradual acceleration 
of her walking. In the sixty-fourth week she ran (or trotted) a 
great deal; in the sixty-fifth walking was to a great extent aban- 

and eager when it did come, there was often the same long, apparently con- 
templative pause first. I attributed it to the time required for cerebration, but 
why it occurred in some cases and not in others, or why it occurred now in 
cases where earlier there had been comparatively prompt seizing, is not clear. 
It is possible that variations in attention may have accounted for these differ- 
ences, — the brain may have been somewhat prepossessed with reverie, even 
when the child seemed attentive; a condition more likely now than earlier. Or 
the whole action of taking an offered object may have risen to a higher psychic 
level, involving more of conscious choice. Where the use of words was 
involved, there is no difficulty in supposing the necessary cerebration to have 
caused the delay. Certain acts, firmly associated by practice with certain 
words, as when the child was told to pat her hands or to do some other 
familiar trick, were promptly performed. In a case where the taught associa- 
tion was a little more complex, — that of waving her hand and saying " By-by" 
at the departure of any person, — though the action was usually performed, the 
person addressed would sometimes be quite out of sight before the child began 
her adieus. 

In general, in the first and second years, all reaction times were slow, but 
the rule had exceptions, the law of which I did not detect: certain acts were 
always likely to be more quickly performed. (See Grasping, pp. 309, 316, 
321, 322.) 



366 University of California. [Vol. i. 

doned, and she scampered about habitually at a jogging run, often 
upsetting (either by tripping or by overbalancing) and not minding 
it in the least. Her balance in walking was excellent at this time: 
she could walk impeded with heavy or clumsy objects, and once in 
the sixty-second week essayed to bring me a gown that she wished 
me to put on, dragging it across the floor, but gave it up and 
brought me a pair of shoes as a substitute; she could lift and carry 
her httle rocking-chair (sixty-fourth week) ; and in the sixty-fifth 
week (fifteen months old), when frolicking naked by the fire, if told 
to "kick" or "jump high," would kick one leg out quite freely, 
without losing her balance. 

In the sixteenth month, though on the whole firm on her feet, 
and constantly running about, she still tripped easily, or miscalcu- 
lated in turning, reaching, etc., and fell down a good many times 
every day. She was easily tilted over, — e. g., by throwing back 
her head to look upward. Yet she showed adaptiveness often 
in keeping her feet: in the sixty-seventh week, after walking a 
few moments among dead leaves, she began to lift her feet very 
high; in the sixty-ninth, she stood firm in a tilting rocking-chair, 
amused herself by walking back and forth over a box two or three 
inches high, and stepped easily up and down over the edge of the 
paved veranda, about three inches high. In the seventy-seventh 
week she walked over plowed ground pretty well, but noticed the 
inequalities, saying, "Down!" as she descended a furrow, noticing 
the downward inclination once or twice before I had perceived 
it myself. 

Her joy in running about, her passion for chasing the cats, her 
ecstasy over playing chase around the furniture (see Muscular 
Sensation, pp. 193-4), her running away from us with laughter 
when called, are noted during all the rest of the half-year. She 
was happy outdoors hour after hour, running a little way, stopping 
to examine things, then running again. One day in the sixty-sixth 
week (sixteenth month), when I was out with her for some two 
hours, she was running and walking all the time, with about four 
intervals of ten minutes each, when she sat digging, etc., and many 
intervals of a few seconds to examine some object. I thought her 
tired at the end of the time, but she was unwilling to stop. In the 
seventy-first week (seventeenth month) seeing the door ajar, she 



shinn.] The Developme7it of a Child. 367 

ran away, and when sought in a few seconds, had run some 40 or 
50 yards off in the garden, and was still racing off as hard as she 
could go, with laughter and shouts of joy in her liberty. She was 
enchanted to be allowed to stand naked by the fire and caper (see 
Muscular Sensation, p. 183), but in the seventy-first week tried 
perpetually to escape and scamper about the room. She was very 
quick in running up and snatching at some article she was afraid 
she would not get otherwise (seventy-first week). In the seventy- 
fourth week, she would cry when brought indoors, and beg 
tragically, "Go! go! go!" When outdoors in this week, she 
would run along the drive, saying, "Walk! walk! walk! " in high 
self-gratulation. 

Climbing was a perpetual desire. I have mentioned that in the 
fourteenth month the child tried to clirhb into chairs; and early in 
the fifteenth she set herself earnestly to accomplish this. In the 
sixty-second week she would put one foot on the rung of a chair, 
and holding to the seat would lift the other foot from the floor; 
but it was only after several days' effort that she could get both 
feet on the rung. After this she tried persistently to pull herself 
to the seat; but her arms were too short to get hold of the chair- 
back, and in laying hold of the edges of the seat she could not get 
a straight pull and so lift her body. She got her knee into the seat 
repeatedly, but could get no higher. Once in the sixty-fourth 
week some one gave her the help of a flat hand behind to brace 
against, and with this help she got into the chair; but it was not 
till after about nine weeks of persistent effort that she finally 
climbed into a chair unaided (see next page). Meanwhile she 
rnade many other efforts at climbing. She tried to get out of her 
baby-carriage, saying, "Down! down!" (sixty-second week); she 
climbed over a pillow to the lounge arm, and stood on it boldly; 
she climbed in and out of her small tin bath-tub (sixty-sixth week); 
she took much pleasure in climbing up and standing with one foot 
on the rung of one chair, the other on the rung of another (sixty- 
seventh week); she climbed from chairs to the table (sixty-eighth 
week). In this week she could scramble down unhelped from a 
bed, sliding backward and letting herself drop, as she had long 
done in getting down from the lounge. She was at first afraid to 



368 University of California. [Vol. i- 

slide down from one bed, which was somewhat higher, without a 
sHght reassuring touch of some one's hands on her; but by the 
last day of the week slid down alone from this bed also; and after 
this it soon became a matter of course to slide off any bed. In the 
sixty-ninth week, she would invert a strong little wooden pail she 
owned, and holding to her mother, would climb up and stand on it. 
(As I have mentioned, she would step up on and over a box of two 
or three inches height ; but for any height much over this, a six- 
inch stair, for instance, she had to climb, pulling up with her arms, 
or at least to have the help of a hand.) She climbed a good deal 
over the arms of chairs, etc. She was not altogether secure in 
these ventures, — perhaps a little incautious: once she pitched 
backward head first from the lounge, where she was moving about; 
but while allowed her independence in climbing she was always 
closely watched, so she only pitched into some one's arms. 

In the seventeenth month, besides the invariable pleasure in 
free activity outdoors, climbing was the child's greatest interest. 
In this month (seventy-first week), she at last accomplished her 
desire of months, and climbed into a chair, — first into a low 
steamer chair, and then, just at the close of the week, into a 
rather low arm-chair (sixteen inches) whose armis were easy to lay 
hold upon; the cushion chanced to be out of it, which made the 
ascent easier. On gaining the seat, the child exulted, and stood 
up and sat down with great satisfaction; then said, "Down!" and 
let herself down backward in her usual way. She evidently felt 
that she was very high up, — perhaps judging her height by the 
difficulty of the ascent, — for though she had repeatedly slid down 
from beds that were higher, she was timid this time about letting 
go, when her feet were but an inch from the invisible floor, and 
stretched herself till the tip of a toe touched before she would let 
go. She immediately climbed back, four times in succession, and 
later returned to it again; she showed no caution in sliding out 
after the first time. Once, while standing in the chair, she leaned 
back and tilted it in jolts for some time. After this, she quickly 
mastered the armless chairs (seventeen inches in height); and in 
three days was climbing in and out of them all. By the end of 
the seventeenth month, she climbed into chairs and sat down as 
a matter of course. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 369 

In the seventy-second week she experimented at stepping 
downstairs, face forward, without help, almost going over on her 
nose at each step; she would rush down two or three steps in this 
manner, bringing up in her mother's lap. After some experiment- 
ing, she preferred again to steady herself on the stair by some one's 
hand. In the seventy-fourth week she again insisted on stepping 
down without help, pushing away the offered hand; sometimes 
she would reach up a hand to touch banister or stair-rail, some- 
times not. She now stepped down very well and steadily, and liked 
it; but one of us always kept on the stair just below her, ready to 
catch her in case of a stumble. She had been, all these latter 
weeks of the seventeenth month, growing very bold, and barely 
escaped bad falls, — sometimes did not escape them. In the 
seventy-second week she insisted on sitting alone on the piano 
stool, and pushed away my hand; yet sat so insecurely without 
it that I always held to her dress. In the seventy-third week she 
tried to climb out of her crib, and sought new places to climb; 
she was bewitched with climbing. 

In the eighteenth month she scampered about the house when 
in high spirits, climbing from chair to chair with inarticulate sounds 
of satisfaction. In the seventy-seventh week, however, she showed 
a certain caution about falling on the stairs, heightened doubtless 
by warnings. She went up on her feet, holding by the banisters; 
but coming down seemed more timid, and wished me close to her. 
She recognized a place where she had fallen a few days before, 
and turned to look up at me, saying, "Fall!" and also "Fall?" 
(There is where I fell. Shall I fall?) She would take my hand, 
then push it away, and from time to time would take hold of my 
dress for an instant and let go again. She would start down a flight 
face forward, hesitate, observe, "Fall!" and turn around and begin 
to scrabble down with an ejaculation expressive of confidence and 
satisfaction; but after about three steps she would stop, get to her 
feet, shake herself down (taking her little skirts in both hands and 
shaking them, with evident annoyance in the way they got huddled 
under her), and start again to step down, face forward ; but again 
showing timidity, yet unwilling to let me give a hand, would 
hesitate, and take to the old scrabbling backward. This inter- 
change of methods happened several times in the course of the 



2)^0 University of California. [Vol. i. 

three flights from garret to lower floor. While stepping down, 
she was annoyed hy my dress, trailing on the same step with her, 
as I kept a step below, ready to catch her in case of a stumble; 
she stopped and complained, pointing to it, "Dress ! 'Way!" As 
her system of pronunciation was not very intelligible, I did not at 
first catch her meaning, and she repeated the protest several times. 
The next day she was still more timid, and even clung to me, on 
the lower stair, where there are no banisters to hold to, the stair 
going between walls; on the upper flights, where she could put a 
hand on the banisters, she was proud to call my attention to the 
fact that she was walking like a lady: "Lady! Ruth!" Later 
in the week, starting boldly downstairs, she would stop, waver, 
say "Fall!" and turn round and back down. 

I set her on a carpenter's horse, perhaps six feet high, one day 
in this week: she was rather sober, but willing, and did not care 
to cling to me, satisfied as long as I held her dress firmly; but 
when I would have set her on her feet there, she objected, and 
seemed timid. The same day, however, she was desirous of 
climbing a ladder, and pleased when I helped her. A few days 
later, she was anxious to reach books on a higher shelf than she 
had before reached; standing in a chair, she soon reached and 
strained to get higher; I gave her two dictionaries to stand on, 
and she climbed them with little fear, and then wanted to climb 
up on the shelves. Yet not a week before, she had fallen back- 
ward from a chair while reaching after books, and had been a 
good deal frightened. 

In the seventy-eighth week, she climbed into her high-chair. 
She did it with difficulty, and failed when she began with the left 
foot. She then set her right foot very high up, on the foot-rest 
of the chair, and pulled up with sheer strength of arms till she 
got her left knee on the seat, then her right, then turned around 
and sat down easily. Her mother held the chair still while she 
did this. 

At some time between the fifty-eighth week (when I noted 
definitely that she could not do it) and the sixty-fifth, she had 
learned to sit down backward in her little rocking-chair, or on a 
stool. In the sixty-fifth and sixty-sixth weeks she took much 



SHiNN.j The Development cf a Child. -271 

pride in seating herself on her wooden pail: she would pick it up, 
invert it carefully, turn her back, and cautiously sit down. Often 
she missed it, but did not fall, as she was on her guard and lowered 
herself with tense muscles; she would try again until she succeeded 
in aiming right. One day in the sixty-sixth week she took her tin 
plate from the table and carried it about the room, inverting it and 
sitting down on it. Throughout the sixteenth month sitting down 
backward continued to interest her more or less, and once in the 
seventeenth month (seventieth week), seeing a tin wash-basin within 
reach, she took it, set it on the floor, and tried to sit down in it 
missed it once, but tried again and succeeded. This interested her 
much and she sat in it for some time, rocking a little. It was her 
favorite amusement all day to carry this basin around and sit down 
in it. By the beginning of the eighteenth month she could sit 
down backward easily in her little chair, and rock it nicely and 
smoothly, — this last a new accomplishment (seventy-fifth week), 
and much enjoyed. 

During all this period a noticeable trait was the child's interest 
in doing something novel with her body, apparently in mere 
curiosity and sense of power. The experiments in sitting down on 
the bucket and in the basin are instances, and there were many 
others, from the fifteenth month on. In the sixty-first week she 
found that she could walk about with her head thrown back, 
looking at the ceiling, and practiced it for a long time. In the 
sixty-fifth week she walked about in her father's slippers, lifting her 
encumbered feet skilfully. At sixteen months old she hit upon the 
feat of walking backward, and practiced it all day, much interested 
and amused. The next day some one showed her how to put her 
hands behind her; this interested her much, and she would do it 
whenever asked. Seeing her pleasure in any new use of her body, 
I showed her how to fold her arms; but the little arms were too 
fat, and she could only cross them, which she did all day with 
much satisfaction. 

In the seventieth week her great joy when indoors was a shallow 

box, some 2}^ inches high, on which she would stand, stepping on 

and off with endless pleasure. Once she fell, and sat down hard on 

the edge, but usually had no trouble in stepping on and off. In the 

25 



372 University of California. [Vol. i. 

seventy-second week she saw two shallow boxes, one set on the 
other, and tried to chmb up on them; to prevent this unsafe 
performance, her grandmother placed them both on the floor, some 
three inches apart; the child then began to get up on one and step 
over to the other, with much pride. She kept this play up for some 
time; and later, after amusing herself awhile in another room, she 
suddenly abandoned her employments and hastened back into the 
room where the cherry boxes had been, looked around till she 
spied them set up sidewise against the wall, and immediately began 
to pull them out, saying, "Box!" Getting one, she started to carry 
it to where they had stood before. Her mother put the two boxes 
in a convenient place, and there the child stepped up on one, over 
to the other, and back and forth and down for some time, very hap- 
pily; then picked up one and carried it — an armful — out into the 
other room, where she tried placing it in different spots and stand- 
ing on it, then in another room, and at last took it back to the side 
of the other box, and tried to set it down there, getting it partly 
on top of the other ; but finally set it in its former place. 

It was in the last week of the seventeenth month that I tried 
the experiment of letting her hang by her hands, and found her 
well able to do it, and on the whole pleased with the feeling 
(Muscular Sensation, p. 192). Creeping was now unfamiliar 
enough to be a novelty; and in the eighteenth month (seventy- 
fifth week) she was charmed when her mother pursued her on 
hands and knees across the carpet and begged her to continue. 
The same day, having stumbled and fallen, she amused herself by 
running around, flinging herself down, and crying, "Down!" Now 
and then she would turn round and round, saying, "Round ! round ! " 
("Wow! wow!") She was happy many minutes in the seventy-sixth 
week stepping from one chair to another, a more adventurous 
repetition of her play with the boxes the month before. Just at the 
end of this week she was greatly pleased with the discovery that 
when she had seated herself on her inverted bucket she could tip it 
forward, bringing herself to her knees. 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 375 

Fourth Half- Year. 

At a year and a half old the child was already so far in posses- 
sion of her powers of locomotion as to have almost all the pleasure 
in their exercise that can be had at any time of life, while their 
novelty still made their ordinary daily use a keen happiness. 
During the next half-year my notes record an intense and un- 
changing delight in free movement outdoors. The child had almost 
never asked to be taken since getting the use of her own legs, and 
would rarely consent to sit still in a lap. As before, she chased the 
cats (ninetieth week); ran away laughmg to be pursued (during the 
whole half-year); and delighted, with ecstasies of laughter, in playing 
chase around the table (nineteenth and twentieth months especially; 
see p. 194), and in romping of all sorts. She ran about after butter- 
flies (eighty-first week), and frolicked with the dog (eighty-seventh 
week, ninetieth week, see p. 199); she was fond of stepping from 
board to board of an old cider-mill frame that lay on the ground 
(eighty-seventh week, ninetieth week). Sometimes, especially in the 
later months, she would find less active occupations, as digging in 
the ground, or picking flowers; but sometimes she would trot 
about from one thing to another, without interesting herself long 
in anything, or would run to and fro, rejoicing in the mere power 
of balanced motion, and exulting aloud, — " Ou' doo' ! Ou' doo' ! " 
(eighty-fourth week), or in the eighty-sixth week, "Walk! 'On two 
little feet ' ! " (quoting a jingle), — or going into ecstasies of freedom 
and activity, capering and ejaculating (see pp. 239, 247^ ^Si). 

Her perpetual appeal in the twentieth month was, "Walk out- 
doors!" If she was carried, or any one tried to make her go in an 
undesired direction, she would repeat it earnestly, — walk appar- 
ently meaning walk freely. Once in this month she was taken on a 
trip of two days, including a number of changes of cars, and a stop 
for errands in the city; at all intervals she wished to be walking or 
running: at the station, she walked up and down a bench, saying, 
"Back go Ruth!" at each turn; at a restaurant, and at a friend's 
office, she was excited and eager, slipping down from her chair and 
wishing to run off" and explore everything; on the street, she was 
determined to go on her own feet, reluctant even to be led, running 
ahead along the sidewalk with her curious rolling gait, laughing 



374 University of Califo7niia. [vol. i. 

with joy, and only occasionally stopping to look at anything; if we 
stopped for shopping, she was soon bored in the store, in spite of all 
its sights, and was begging to "go ou' doo', — wa' [walk] ou' doo'! " 
She ran thus for some ten blocks in all, carried over crossings. 
When we reached the village to which we were bound, she was 
most discontented at our getting into a carriage, and begged to get 
out and walk, and as we found that the carriage did not start for 
some minutes, we indulged her; when the carriage overtook us, 
she was still reluctant to get in, begging, "Walk! walk!." and on 
reaching the house we were to visit, she would pay attention to no 
one, clinging to her mother and begging, " Ou' doo'! — wa' ou' 
doo'!" The next morning she insisted on running about on her 
own feet in the strange places for nearly four hours, with the 
greatest enjoyment, — traversing perhaps a mile in all. In passing 
through the city again on our return the same day, she ran as 
before along the sidewalk, waving her arms and shouting with joy 
of liberty (a somewhat conspicuous little object, which made many 
passers turn and smile, — a contrast to the other, demurer babies 
on the street); and on the ferry-boat she insisted on trotting round 
and round the deck, and was reluctant to stop and go ashore. 

After this, she preferred walking even to driving, and one day 
at the end of the month, hearing something said about driving as 
her bonnet was put on, was disposed to whimper: "Walk, — walk 
outdoors!" she protested. At the end of the twenty-first month 
again, she went off to drive protesting that she wished to "walk 
on feet." Returning at about 5:30 in the afternoon, after being 
outdoors since breakfast, her first greeting to me was, "Aunty! 
Ruth walk outdoors!" {i. e., wishes to). She protested bitterly 
against going into the house to receive a toy wagon which had 
been brought for her in her absence, wriggled away from it, 
and consented to take pleasure in it only when it was broug«ht 
outdoors. 

She had no timidity about wandering off alone; and we often 
allowed her to do it, watching at a little distance. Possibly she 
experienced an added sense of freedom and power from the idea 
that she was alone. In the ninetieth week she started off on a 
walk, and we followed. She tramped out along the drive to 
the main road, and tried to climb a fence to go to a neighbor's 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 375 

and see his ducks and geese; failing in this, and also in an 
attempt to creep under the fence, she kept on along the high- 
way, running ahead by herself, rushing at the dog and mauling 
him, or standing and laughing as he charged past her. After 
she had gone about 360 yards she stopped and tried again to 
cHmb the fence, and after failing in this and being stopped in 
persistent attempts to explore a neighbor's lane, turned home- 
ward, and walked some 18 yards more, till her father, coming by in 
a buggy, took her up. About this time she began to take wider 
ranges in her travels round the garden, playing a little while on 
the walks, then roaming off into the regions of potatoes and corn 
beyond. 

On a trip to the city in the ninetieth week, she behaved just 
as she had done the month before, — insisting on being on her 
own feet in the street, and running ahead at the top of her speed, 
unconcerned if she got far ahead; indifferent to the attractions of 
the shops, and eager to leave them and "walk." At one time, 
for a number of blocks, she persisted in sitting down on every 
step and curb she passed; when carried to prevent this, she 
struggled, and cried, "Let Ruth walk!" On a street-car she 
insisted on walking back and forth along the seat that ran along 
one side (empty, as it chanced), enjoying the way she was flung 
about by the jolts of the car. In all such cases, as long as she. 
was doing no harm and annoying no one, we let her take her 
own way, keeping close enough to her in safe places for a vigilant 
watch, and in unsafe ones, close enough for instant interference; 
but allowing her to feel as unrestricted as possible. 

Camping in the redwood forest in the twenty-second month, 
she objected at first to the rough ground, and wished to be car- 
ried. But on the fourth day a stray dog roamed into camp, 
an^ in her interest in him she ran after him over stones and 
sand in the stream-bed, and tried to scramble up the steep bank 
after him when he went away. After this she was more inde- 
pendent, and disposed to walk around by herself. On her return 
from this trip she was more eager than ever to stay outdoors and 
ramble round: developed some crossness under restraint, unusual 
to her even disposition, and "Ruth go outdoors!" "Ruth stay 
outdoors!" was her constant cry. "Let Ruth down!" she cried, 



2)^(^ University of Califoriiia. vol. i. 

held in my arms merely for the moment that I lifted her from 
the wagon on her return from a drive: and set on the ground, 
she trotted about, pointing down every path and saying, "That 
where Ruth goes!" a curious expression of conscious, remembered 
joy in her pilgrimages. 

Indoors also she often raced about in a random way, in sheer 
exuberance of spirits and activity, in only less glee than when out- 
doors, capering, uttering joyous cries and prattle, impatient if held 
still a moment, — "O aunty, let Tootyboo get down!" "O papa, 
let Tootyboo walk!" 

I have before mentioned especially her remarkable spirits and 
desire of motion in the twenty-first month, her running about all 
day, shouting and squeahng, and crying, "Tya! i-ya!" ; her ecstasy 
in scampering about naked, flinging herself down and jumping up, 
etc. (eighty-ninth week, ninety-fifth week; see p, 183.) 

She still tripped and fell often enough to show that her balance 
was not really firm yet. She probably went down with relaxed 
muscles, and seemed to feel very little inconvenience from the 
tumbles, and to regard them as matters of course. " Down you 
went!" I commented once as she fell. "Go down more," answered 
the child serenely, tripping again as she picked herself up and went 
on. She often commented on a fall: "Fell down that time!" 
(ninetieth week); "Take care!" when she slipped or stumbled, 
(ninety-first week). Once she missed her chair in sitting down 
backward, and sat in a heap on the floor; she picked herself up 
laughing, not chagrined, but made self-conscious. I have but one 
record (at twenty months old) of a fall that frightened or discomfited 
her at all, when walking or running; and this time she was playing 
with another child, and was perhaps overset by some movement of 
hers. Once in the twenty-first month I saw her stand on one foot 
in the bath to scrub the other knee with a brush, balancing only 
with a slight touch of one hand on the edge of the tub. 

The desire to climb continued remarkable, and the half-year 
showed a good deal of progress in skill in this direction. I have 
above related (see Muscular Sensation) that in the eighty-third 
week the child climbed one flight of stairs ten times in succession. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 2)77 

turning around and going back as soon as she reached the bottom, 
and also took two or three trips up and down another flight; then 
after a brief excursion into one of the rooms, ascended the stairs 
again, — about i6o steps in all. This climbing was stepping up 
from stair to stair, holding by the banisters. I have many notes of 
her pleasure in the exercise. She liked especially the garret stairs, 
which were guarded with banisters in an open well, while the lower 
stairs were inclosed between walls and gave her nothing to hold 
to, as the stair-rail was too high for her. On this lower stair she 
went down cautiously, remarking, "Might fall!" but on the upper 
one she was proud to climb without having me close at hand. She 
handed articles to me to carry, but did not wish to be helped 
beyond this, even on the lower stair: at eighty-eight and eighty- 
nine weeks old, she would say, "Own self! own self!" when help 
was offered, or "Ruth go downstairs own self!" or, "Let Ruth 
walk!" Once in the eighty-ninth week she slipped away and went 
upstairs quite alone, stepping, not creeping, without any timidity. 
Climbing the stairs once, in this same week, to avoid setting her 
foot on a pasteboard box that stood on one step, instead of bring- 
ing her left foot to her right, she carried it past, to a higher step, as 
an adult does, and as she had formerly done when walking up with 
the help of a hand; and with the help of the banister, she made 
the extra step with little difficulty. Going down the same day, she 
stepped several steps quite unaided, without touching a banister, 
but usually preferred to hold lightly. In the one hundredth week, 
I was told that she had started upstairs after some one, and had 
fallen, — the first real fall on the stairs that I have recorded, though 
I have notes of her stumbling, — and cried hard, but insisted on 
going up again. The next day, when reminded of it and asked if 
it hurt her, she seemed somewhat annoyed and abashed, and said 
''No, — that didn't hurt Ruth anything!" — perhaps fearing her 
freedom in climbing the stairs might be restricted. 

In the eighty-seventh week she took pleasure in sliding down- 
stairs, sitting on a step and sliding gradually over the edge, coming 
down with a thud, saying as she did so, "O, o, o, o-o!' In the 
ninety-first she liked to slide down on her feet, holding some one's 
hand, and sliding from step to step with a racking jolt (see p. 204, 
205, 207, note). 



^yS University of California. [Vol. i. 

She had many other ambitions in climbing, apart from the 
stairs. She wished, as earher, to chmb up on tables and desks and 
explore pigeon-holes, examine pens, etc. (eightieth week, e. g.). 
"Climb up, climb up!" she said (eighty-ninth week), pretending to 
climb a tree; in the ninetieth week, she climbed up five steps of a 
steep ladder-stair, saying, "Ladder!" She climbed down with the 
help of my hands, stepping securely enough, and turned to climb 
again, but gave up after one step, apparently a little intimidated by 
the difficulty of the descent. Two days later, at a neighbor's, 
several older children took her up a ladder to a hay loft: she went 
with entire confidence, needing no help in climbing, and after she 
had. been brought down, went up half a dozen steps several times, 
with no one behind her, only arms below ready to catch her at 
need. Later in the same week I found her standing on a board 
that propped the clothes-line, teetering it up and down and crying, 
"Ruth ride! " Presently she sat down astride it, and continued to 
teeter. At my suggestion, she took my hands and walked up the 
steep incline to the top; and on reaching the ground she wished to 
do it again. 

She now (ninety-first week) began climbing ladders wherever 
she saw them, going halfway up, to "pick leaves," e. g., — getting 
her leaves, and coming down successfully. I always allowed her 
to do this, standing close by — or following her if she went above 
my reach — with a firm hold on her skirts, or with my arms ready 
to close about her at the slightest stumble. She climbed very 
firmly and cautiously, however, and I have no record or memory 
of ever seeing her make a slip. Climbing, indeed, where hands 
and feet are both used, seems to me a safer exercise for a baby than 
people think: on an exposed high place, standing or sitting, still 
more walking, a little thing is apt to lose balance, but when climb- 
ing with all fours, so to speak, conscious of the insecurity, it seems 
quite able to take care of itself. 

At just twenty-one months old, the child climbed a ladder to 
the top, all but the very top ledge, over which she leaned and 
looked down the other side without the least timidity, — nine 
steps. She started up another, but after some five steps came 
to a step that was worn narrow, and at once stopped, said, " Go 
down ! " and climbed back. She then wished to be put up into a seat 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 379 

on the high judge's stand, above the tennis court; she had before 
been timid about this seat, but now when I held to her dress, she 
pushed away my hand with annoyance; sat awhile, interested in 
the height, then scrambled out of the seat, observing that she 
wished to sit "down there," on the platform itself, picked her way 
carefully out on the narrow ledge of platform beside the chair, 
then started to let herself down backward (four feet) without 
fear. In a hammock, she was much annoyed by my keeping hold 
of the edges, but came near falling out when she tried to push 
my hands away, and gave up her resistance. I note on the next 
day that she is at this period "possessed to climb." She would 
even try, when driving, to climb up the rods that supported the 
phaeton top. 

During the fortnight in camp in the twenty-second month, 
she was at first timid about climbing, as she was about walking 
on the rough ground. The tent was at the top of a bank that 
descended quite steeply to the creek bed, and at first she had to 
be carried here: but after the fourth day, when she ran after a 
dog (see above) and tried to climb the bank after him, she lost 
timidity, and insisted on being allowed to go up and down between 
tent and camp fire on her own feet, with help, and once or twice 
started alone, sliding recklessly down the steep incline. She 
clambered up into a high seat her father had made her between 
two saplings, and amused herself by sitting on the arm of it. 
Her mother records that she climbed up the low-sloping roots 
of a redwood, to where they joined the trunk, and taking hold 
of a projecting bit of bark, set her little foot up against the 200- 
foot column of the tree, and made a tremendous effort to ascend, 
saying, "Ruth climb tree!" She tried to go up the bank alone 
but had to give it up, saying, "Ruth can't go up this hill!" 

In the ninety-fifth week, after her return, she saw a ladder flat 
against a wall, and rushed to climb it, and tugged up some steps; 
then, thinking it not safe, I asked her uncle to set it out from the 
wall; he did so, but left it very steep, perhaps at half the angle 
used by the men in picking fruit; she climbed it, however, to the 
top, saying over and over, "See this child climb ladder!" (which 
I may have said in calling her uncle.) Whenever it shook, she 
said to me, as I climbed behind her, "This ladder won't fall." At 



380 University of California. Vol. i. 

the top, she reached up higher, disappointed to stop. I set her 
on the top, where she sat fearlessly, and when once I had set her 
foot on the first step of the descent again, scrambled down with- 
out help. I held her dress firmly all the time, without giving her 
any aid in climbing. She wished to ascend again at once, and 
asked to "climb that ladder," pointing to the house-wall (where the 
"rustic" boarding showed projecting edges), and up to the wide 
ledge over a door-frame. 

In the ninety-sixth week, she was much displeased if she was 
set in her high-chair; she must always climb up. She was proud 
of this ability, and usually called to me to "look at Ruth climb!" 

From the fifteenth month the child had in a way understood 
the word jump, and would try to obey the direction, but only by 
springing with her body, bending her knees, but not lifting her 
feet from the ground. This springing movement with the trunk 
muscles seemed very instinctive, beginning, as I have said, in the 
earliest months, and continuing still as a demonstration of joy and 
excitement, — e. g., when she was camping in the twenty-second 
month and I joined the party, on seeing me at the car window 
she jumped up and down in a marked manner, though she was 
not able to lift her feet and jump clear. She was ambitious to 
do so, and once in the eighty-second week practised a long 
time, trying to learn the movement from her parents: she would 
watch them, and bend her knees just as they did, but could not 
raise both feet. In the ninety-first week, a few days before she 
was twenty-one months old, seeing an older child, a boy, jumping 
along the paved veranda, she ran along behind him, eager to 
imitate, squatting down and making a motion with her body as 
if to jump, then running forward about the space of his jump, 
and squatting again when he did, and so on. This was only one 
of many efforts to imitate jumping. She did not, however, seem 
to be aware of her failure, but pranced cheerfully, and called it 
jumping. One day in the ninety-seventh week, when she was 
making many experiments, as squatting and waddling (see below) 
she tried a great deal to jump ofif a step, squatting as if to jump, 
and then stepping off, — yet several times did approach nearly to 
a real jump. At twenty-three months old, she caught the move- 



Shinn. 



Hie Development of a Child. 38 1 



ment, and began really to jump with both feet. She was delighted 
with her achievement of this long-desired accomplishment, and for 
the next ten days I have frequent notes of her practising it (up to 
the one hundred and second week) ; after that, it ceased, apparently, 
to interest so much. She seems to have struck it at last by pure 
accident. 

As in the preceding months she liked new experiments in 
using her body. She amused herself with trying to walk about 
with eyes shut and covered with her hands, and kept this up till 
she had had several falls (eighty-fourth week); walking on the 
road, she enjoyed scuffing along in dusty places (eighty-sixth 
week); she continued occasionally to experiment at walking back- 
ward; she squatted down and in this position waddled along (ninety- 
seventh week), much amused at the curious gait, crying, "Ruth 
walk this way!" She amused herself along time running about 
while leaning back as far as possible, then squatting and waddling. 
She was interested also, the same day, in efforts to jump, (see 
above); and in creeping about the lawn, saying, "See Ruth 
crawl!" (I find an occasional reference to her creeping under the 
table, but on the whole the quadrupedal mode of progression 
seems to have been promptly abandoned as soon as she could 
walk.) In the twenty-third month, she was enchanted to be run 
off her feet by two people taking each an arm (holding her well 
supported with arm and hand) and running, either on a level or 
downstairs. She would run to the other members of the family, 
crying, "Ruth ran! Ruth did run this way!" with excited 
gestures; her own intensified activity, rather than the passive 
motion, seemed to impress her. 

Third Year. 

In the third year, my notes, record little farther development of 
the movements of balance and locomotion, — which were, in fact, 
practically acquired for life before the close of the second year. 
With the increasing development of intelligence, the child's interests 
and occupations grew more varied, and the mere pleasure of using 
her bodily powers fell into the background. When she was taken 
to the city on the day after her second birthday and thereafter, 



382 University of California. [Vol. i. 

instead of caring only to run on the sidewalk, she was silently and 
happily occupied on the cars in watching the people, and the sights 
from the windows, and accompanied us decorously on the streets 
and in the shops. Her desire to be outdoors, though it did not 
wane, seemed not so much as before for the sake of mere free move- 
ment, which was now a matter of course to her, not an active 
pleasure in itself She went about picking flowers, dragged her 
little wagon about, and chased the cats, as before; she was all the 
year as fond as ever of running away in joke when 'called, — a trick 
that in time had to be stopped, — and of playing chase, or "bear," 
a more dramatized form of the same thing : but in all this, the mere 
bodily activity became more and more subordinated to the mental 
element. There were many ebullitions of high physical spirits, in 
which running, frisking, jumping were mere overflows of muscular 
exuberance, — but this also was a different thing from the enjoy- 
ment of the movements for their own sakes, as interesting attain- 
ments, in the year before. She still loved to go on rambles, and 
the distances to which she would wander off, if one left her to 
choose the road, increased: she was apt, however, to have some 
objective point, as the neighbor's farmyard, the creek that crossed 
the ranch a half mile away. This last walk (a favorite one from 
the thirty-second month on) is the longest I have recorded during 
the year, and in this, or even in shorter ones, she would ask to be 
carried from time to time, — almost always on rough ground. She 
was willing to be wheeled in her carriage, or taken driving, instead 
of insisting on her own feet (this I note in the thirty-fifth month 
and afterward). 

She could still be tripped now and then : I have one note, in the 
twenty-ninth month, of her falling, on rough ground. Later, in the 
thirty-fifth month, she discovered that she could stand on one foot, 
and called my attention to it : she was interested in doing it, and 
could keep her balance for five or six seconds, which indicates a 
pretty complete mastery of equilibrium in standing. 

Climbing continued an interest in itself, and her ability to 
climb increased: indeed, as every year offered more difficult feats 
in climbing to her, as she grew more skilful, this power never alto- 
gether ceased to afford the interest of novelty. On the stairs she 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 383 

insisted on walking. I note a remonstrance in the twenty-sixth 
month, when her mother wished to carry her downstairs: "I walk 
all the time!" By the end of this month, she was really able to go 
up ajid down alone without the least oversight, and I refer to her 
coming upstairs to me as a matter of course. Although my notes 
are not clear on the point, it is my impression that there was still 
an effort to follow her in these trips, for safety's sake; but in the 
twenty-seventh month I have several notes of her running away 
and coming upstairs quite alone. • She was in the habit of having a 
chat with me in the dark in my room every evening between dinner 
and bedtime, and I have several notes of her rambling off by herself 
before I was ready, and going up alone in the dark to my room. 
Certainly before the end of the twenty-seventh month we let her go 
up and down freely alone, and she was as secure on the stairs as a 
grown person. 

Her acrobatics on the train in the twenty-eighth month, — 
climbing over the back of a seat, and up to the window ledge, to 
fling herself backward into our laps — have been mentioned (p. 207). 
In the twenty-ninth month, she climbed over a stack of boxes with a 
good deal of skill and persistence: in the thirtieth I note a disposition 
to climb anything that offers footing, — trees with low branches (that 
is to say, a few inches from the ground), ladders, carpenters' horses, 
etc. I observed in this month that her method of climbing was 
just the same as that of an older person, pulling up with her hands 
and putting her knee on the surface she wished to reach: she had 
used the knee thus from the very first effort to. climb a step. Once 
in this month she slid boldly down from some mattresses, piled 
high on a bedstead, to a chair, too far below for her feet to touch. 
At another time, she climbed into a tree for some hard and worth- 
less fruits, which I allowed her to gather to play with : she got up 
a foot or so from the ground, and labored for a long time to reach 
as many as possible of the little fruits, coming down to put them 
into my pocket, and climbing up again, and stretching herself up as 
far as she could to reach them. Although at this time, as a rule, 
rather averse to hard exertion, she would pull and tug valiantly 
to climb. From the thirty-third month she was fond of climbing 
up into the high judge's seat above the tennis court. In the thirty- 
fourth, in camp in the Sierra, one of her chief joys was to climb 



384 University of California. [Vol. i.. 

over the rocks and logs, and she was ambitious and entirely fearless 
in this: she would tug up the rocks, saying at each step, "Higher 
yet! higher yet!" like Longfellow's youth. She was dressed in 
trousers and overalls, which helped her climbing. • 

Jumping did not become a common feat. I have notes from 
the twenty-ninth month of her "jumping about" in high spirits,, 
but I do not know just what the movement referred to was, — 
probably not strictly jumping. In the thirty-second month, she 
practised jumping from the lounge, evidently a little afraid, yet 
desirous of doing it; later, holding my hand to steady herself, she 
did it very well. Again in the thirty-fifth month she had a spell of 
practicing at jumping from a step. 

She still liked, now and then, to fall back on the earlier and 
simpler motions and positions. I note a fondness for rolling about 
on a bed in the twenty-fifth month (and doubtless at other times 
that I have failed to note: in this year, as the matters to be 
recorded grew more complex, I could not keep complete record of 
anything but steps in advance in the principal movements). In the 
thirtieth month I note her rolling about the floor, and add that this- 
roUing about, flat on back or side, seems to afford her now and 
then great physical comfort, and that she is at all times very ready 
to lie down on the floor. Rolling on the lawn in the same month, 
he begged me to join her: "You^ain't too big. I will show you, 
how to roll over and over. Just this way." She could not steer 
herself at all, and when asked if she could roll to any given place, 
she would try it, and shout, " Yes! I can roll to the jasmine!" or 
say, "No, — I can't," according as she had happened to bring up 
in the desired region or not. She amused herself once in the 
twenty-seventh month by creeping upstairs, as she had done at 
first (and indeed, at seven years old she will do this, as well as 
experimenting in all other possible ways of getting up and down 
stairs, — sliding, hitching, etc.). 

I observed in the thirtieth month that she still sat flat on the 

, floor with legs turned outward at the knees ; at no such angle as in- 

the first year, but in a position that I found impossible myself. 



shinn.] The Developme^it of a Child. 385 

The position is to be obtained by resting- on hands and knees, and 
then lifting the body backward to a sitting position ; but it requires 
a flexibihty of the leg joints possessed by few adults. The child 
finds it difficult at seven years, but can do it (see p. 340). 



In the latter part of the twenty-first month, I was told that 
when supported in deep water to swim, the child paddled like a 
dog some twenty feet : but this I did not see, nor was there ever 
opportunity to repeat the experiment till she was nearly six years 
old; at this time she showed no instinctive ability to swim, but was 
quick in learning to balance her body, and would probably have 
learned to swim with a few lessons. 



INSTINCTS CONNECTED WITH FOOD-TAKING. 

Sucking, Licking, Smacking, Biting, Spitting Out. 

Sucking, if it is to be classed as an instinctive, not a reflex, 
movement, is the most perfect and probably the earliest instinct in 
the human infant. That it is properly an instinct, and not a reflex, 
I think we must admit. As Preyer points out, although the move- 
ment is perfectly performed at birth upon the proper peripheral 
stimulus, the touch of a suitable object between the lips, yet it may 
begin without the peripheral touch (perhaps by central initiation, as 
in dreaming) ; instead of being quickly exhausted, like other reflexes, 
it goes on continuously till hunger is satisfied, then stops, without 
any change in the pressure on the lips having taken place, — indeed, 
if the infant is not hungry, sucking may fail to follow at all on the 
touch of the nipple, which may be rejected from the mouth instead, 
of being laid hold on and sucked; and instead of becoming more 
firmly consolidated in its reflex character with repetition, sucking 
loses, as we grow older, the traits of a reflex that it at first pos- 
sessed, and becomes purely voluntary. 

This movement appeared in the case of my niece as soon as 
she was put to the breast, and was vigorous and perfect. In the 
early weeks, objects accidentally put into her mouth were sucked, 
but this of course rarely happened before she could guide her 
hands to her mouth. From the fourth week, throughout the second 
month and into the third, she had a habit, if held against one's face 
when hungry, of laying hold on the cheek with her lips, and sucking 
frantically. At two months old, she would suck the cheek if 
hungry, but if not hungry would put her mouth on it and lick it. 
This is the earliest mention I find of licking; but on its first appear- 
ance the movement was well co-ordinated and definite. (Thefeeling 
with the tongue about the lips, in the seventh week, had of course 
resembled licking, but was a much more indefinite movement.) 

In the third month appeared the marked enjoyment of sucking 

as a soothing sensation, — first in the case of sucking the thumb, 

then in the use of the rubber nipple, associated for more than a year 

with going to sleep (above, pp. 265-7). ^^ the same month, suck- 

(386) 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 387 

ing, and also smacking the lips, were expressions of hunger; but in 
the latter part of the fourth the baby frequently pursed her lips and 
made sucking and smacking sounds, without any connection with 
hunger, or any reason that I could discern, (In the eighth month 
and again in the fifteenth there was a marked habit of smacking 
the lips, — beginning in both cases over the eating of sugar, and 
continuing for several days : the child would begin smacking vigor- 
ously every now and then, and keep it up for some seconds. In 
the eighth month this would be done without apparent suggestion 
or object, but in the fifteenth month the smacking was clearly a 
sign of desire for food.) As she lay asleep at sixteen weeks old, 
I saw her repeatedly sucking, though she had been fed shortly 
before she fell asleep. 

In the middle of the fourth month, the baby instead of sucking 
a finger put into her mouth, began to bite down on it with her 
toothless jaws, quite persistently. After this, her rattle handle, rub- 
ber rings, etc., were not only sucked but also chewed and mumbled 
with her jaws. The sucking alone still gave much contentment, 
and I find it mentioned as an accompaniment of tranquil attention; 
but the notes of biting increase. In the nineteenth week, she 
began the trick above described (Muscular Sensation, p. 189) of 
holding the rubber of her rattle between her jaws, and jerking it 
out. Besides biting down hard on a finger, she would now, when 
lifted to one's face, bite at chin and cheek, instead of sucking or 
licking. Objects that offered pretty firm resistance were preferred 
to softer ones, both for biting and for sucking: e. g., a wooden tip 
on one of her rattles was preferred to a rubber ring attached to it 
and intended for biting. 

It was evident that the new disposition to bite was connected 
with dentition. The teeth were now growing up through the gum, 
and the irritation of their growth must have been the stimulus to 
the movement: after the appearance of the first pair, at twenty-two 
weeks old, there seems to have been less disposition to bite, and 
indeed, after this I have but one note of biting (viz., that at twenty- 
eight weeks old she bit a hole through a rubber nipple) during the 
rest of the sixth month and the whole of the seventh. The biting 
action may have served to allay some irritation in the gums, yet I 
26 



388 University of California. [Vol. t. 

cannot think that it was accidentally hit upon, and then continued 
for the sake of the relief it was found to afford: it began with a 
definiteness and persistence that made it seem highly instinctive in 
character; the baby was impelled to it without visible reason, as 
the time for its usefulness approached. Moreover, as the teeth 
began to press close under the skin, and the baby was apt to hurt 
herself in biting, she still persisted in the movement. 

After the appearance of the teeth and the cessation of biting just 
spoken of, notes of sucking become again more frequent. In the 
last week of the sixth month the baby put her mouth to my cheek, 
sucking at it, and also licking and mouthing, as she used to do at 
two months old. Later in the same week (179th day) she had been 
playing with some oranges in a dish, and ended by putting her 
mouth down to the dish, and sucking and licking it, then began to 
lick and mouth the oranges, putting her head down to them; in 
this, she was evidently finishing a hand-investigation of their 
properties by appealing to the tactile sense of lips and tongue. She 
was a little disposed for a week or two in the eighth month to suck 
her thumb. 

With the close of the seventh month, I find once more notes of 
biting. At seven months old, in sucking bits of orange, the baby 
crushed them with her teeth, and a few days later (214th day) set 
her teeth into loquats given her to suck. She evidently had in 
this no idea of eating, nor even of dividing anything with her teeth : 
even ten days later, at thirty-two weeks old, when she had some- 
what persistently bitten in two some pieces of orange that were 
held to her mouth to be sucked, she seemed puzzled at feeling the 
divided half in her mouth, and had no idea of swallowing it. Soon 
after this there began, together with evidences that more teeth had 
started, another period of noticeable disposition to bite and chew 
(probably thirty-third week, — first noted in the thirty-fourth) and 
it appeared decidedly to stimulate the baby's deficient appetite 
to be able to chew at something, as a bit of dried beef or a bread- 
crust; and from this time on, the desire to masticate in connection 
with food became more and more imperative^ (see pp. 331-2). 

^One must hesitate in questioning the verdict of those competent medical 
authorities who object to any food that requires mastication before the appear- 



Shinn.] qjie Development of a Child. 389 

Given loquats, she would promptly bite them in two, and could no 
longer be trusted to suck at them for the juice (thirty-sixth week). 
She bit at all sorts of objects, sometimes hard ones, as a bottle, 
hurting her sensitive gums. The third tooth came through in the 
thirty-sixth week, and three more in the thirty -ninth. Having now 
both upper and lower incisors, the baby began to masticate properly, 
so far as the incisors alone sufficed, and was eager to do it : her 
chewing was no longer the blind, instinctive movement it had been 
earlier, and was aptly joined with swallowing movements. Dry 
crackers were preferred to bread-crusts, perhaps because they 
crunched more crisply under the teeth, and were chewed and 
swallowed neatly. By the end of the eleventh month — the baby 
having now seven teeth — a bit of steak was chewed and swallowed, 
instead of being sucked ; and when a piece too tough to tear with 
the teeth was given her, she was annoyed, and refused to suck it. 
Pretzels only she would suck and lick, being chiefly interested in 
the salt surface. At the end of the twelfth month, she would bite 
through the skin of an apple, taking out bits of skin and flesh, as 
skilfully as a grown person, so that apples could no longer be 
trusted in her hands to be rolled about and played with. 

She still sucked and chewed at uneatable objects that got into 
her hands, though both tricks declined as she came to require more 
complex and mental interest from objects than the mere investiga- 
tion of their surfaces. 

There was a recurrence of seizing at our faces as we held her, 
and putting her lips to them, sometimes biting (tenth and eleventh 
months), but licking and sucking no longer appeared at such 
times; and there was a visible tendency toward differentiation in 
the eleventh month, the applications of the mouth becoming expres- 
sions of friendliness, out of which kissing developed, while the biting 
was done in rough play, and connected with snatching at the hair, 

ance of the molars : yet it is impossible not to wonder if they do not underrate 
the significance of the strong instinct to masticate food which appears with the 
incisors, perhaps a year earlier. I find the suggestion backed by the opinion of 
Dr. Joseph Le Conte ; and also by that of some experienced family physicians. 
There is no doubt that the weight of authority among specialists in the care of 
children is against it. , 



390 University of Calif oniia. [Vol. i. 

etc/ The baby would begin with the caressing touches, then end 
in biting, as if the opportunity had suggested the use of her teeth; 
and there was always something instinctive and non-volitional about 
the action, in spite of its connection with other manifestations of a 
spirit of rough romping, — it seemed as though she felt somehow 
impelled to use her teeth. This trick recurred at intervals in the 
second year, being noted every month up to the sixteenth, after 
which it disappeared for months, reappearing in the middle of the 
twenty-first month, persisting throughout the month, then disap- 
pearing again (not without a little discipline), until the latter part of 
the twenty-seventh month, when for a couple of weeks, extending 
into the twenty-eighth month, I find the trick often mentioned. 
Late in the thirtieth month, it returned with peculiar force, and for 
about three weeks was persistent. The child would rush up to a 
person and laughingly set her teeth in, like a romping puppy. 
Reproof seemed only to infix the disposition, by a sort of converse 
suggestion, and set her to doing it again, defiantly, yet gayly, and 
without a particle of ill temper. Before the end of the thirty-first 
month, this impulse passed away, or yielded to discipline; but in 
the thirty-fifth, among sundry methods of misbehavior toward her 
kitten, there. was for about a week a persistent impulse to bite it; 
she probably hit upon this by accident, as she was cuddling the 
kitten to her face, when it suddenly occurred to her to put its head 
into her mouth and bite it, till the kitten cried out. We stopped 
this — or it passed away independently of our efforts — in a few 
days; but once in the next week she could not resist putting the 
tip of the kitten's tail into her mouth and biting it. After this, 
though she remained disposed to rough play, and biting as well as 
other roughness did reappear, there were no more such noticeable 
fits of impulse. 

The child's mother says that sportive biting was a habit of her 
own at perhaps four years old, and was broken up with difficulty: 
as far as she can recall her feelings, she acted under an irresistible 
physical impulse, and felt keen physical satisfaction in the sensation 

^ It is worth noticing that the word bite was at first (sixteenth month) con- 
fused with kiss; even in the eighteenth month the words seemed to be occa- 
sionally confused with each other, and with "eat," but this may have been 
in play. 



Shin-n-] The Development of a Child. 391 

of biting down on some one's skin; there was no ill temper at all in 
it. During- the month when biting seemed most persistent and 
uncontrollable in my niece, I was disposed to connect it with 
dentition, noticing that at the time she had her thumb in her mouth 
a good deal, biting it, or feeling her gum (not sucking it). But a 
comparison of dates throughout fails to show any constant connec- 
tion between the growth of teeth and the periods of disposition to 
bite. It is hkely that such a connection existed, but was impos- 
sible to trace, because the earliest growth of the teeth, far below 
the gum, could not be fixed by date. Certainly there was no 
relation between the dates of their appearance through the skin and 
the biting/ Nor was the trick simply part of the child's general 



^I did not keep a careful account of the appearance of the teeth, but find 
incidental notes of most of them. It may be of some interest to append the 
record, though I suppose that, apart from the relation of dentition to health, 
spirits, food, and such small instinctive habits as the one above described 
(which relation I have already pointed out in the proper places), this record 
has about as little developmental interest and value as anything that could be 
noted by the observer of an infant; besides being a subject on which further 
record is not needed, since physicians of infancy have already very complete 
records of the process of dentition. However, for what it is worth, I append it: 

154th day (22 weeks old), lower first incisor. 

156th day (23d week), lower first incisor. 

250th day (36th week), upper first incisor, right. 

269th day (39th week), upper first incisor, left. 

272d day (39th week), lower second incisor, right. 

272d day (39th week, upper second incisor, right. 

294th day (42 weeks old), lower second incisor, left. 
? (nearly a year old), upper second incisor, left. 

446th day (15th month), upper first molar, right. 

489th day (16 months old), upper first molar, left. 

About 533d day (i8th month), eyetooth. 

535th day (18th month), lower first molar. 
? (19th month), lower canine, left. 

566th day (19th month), eyetooth. 

578th day (19 months old), lower canine, right. 

6o2d day (20th month), lower first molar. 

27th month, latter half, 2 second molars. 

The other two milk-teeth were not yet cut in the thirty-first month, when I 
fancied their growth might have something to do with the child's persistent 
biting; but I have no record of their appearance. 

In the thirty-first month, the dentist discovered a tiny hole in one of the 
molars, too minute to be filled; and on the child's third birthday he filled two 



392 University of California. [Vol. i. 

romping, coming and going as the fits of rough play did; for there 
were many periods of strong disposition to rough play, with 
slapping, snatching at our hair, etc., without any appearance of the 
impulse to bite. 

From the first, the baby thrust the nipple from her mouth quite 
neatly with her tongue, when she was satisfied. She had no further 
ability to spit anything out, however, and when she first tasted a 
novel liquid, on the 214th day (about seven months old) she merely 
dropped her jaw and let it trickle out. About a month later when 
her greater freedom of movement enabled her to get many small 
foreign bodies into her mouth, as bits of paper, flower petals, etc., 
which we would at once take out, she began to assist us by getting 
the object to the tip of her tongue: in the tenth month, when told 
to thrust such things out of her mouth, she would get them cleverly 
to the tip of her tongue, scraping the roof of her mouth with a 
comical little sound, and put her tongue out to let us take the object 
from it. By the end of the twentieth month, she could spit out 
objects (as the stones of loquats) easily. 

{ Other Instinctive Movements. 

Pushing with the feet began very early (pp. 180, 189, note), and 
if not reflex, was highly instinctive, probably having some antici- 
patory connection with the development later of the locomotor and 
balancing- movements, — under which head instances of the move- 
ment will be found (p. 334). Pushing and pulling with the hands 
were among the earliest movements following on the acquirement 
of grasping; indeed, they were to some extent involved in the 
vague fumblings that preceded grasping. Like creeping, they did 
not seem in a high degree instinctive movements ; they were rather 
selected ones, from among the many vague ones used in the baby's" 
early random manipulations of objects; there must have been a 

small holes, leaving two others as too small to be operated on yet. This is 
probably unusually early for the milk-teeth to show decay, — almost upon their 
appearance, — and the child inherits bad teeth on her father's side: but even 
though hers is an unusual case, it is safe to draw the general moral that inspec- 
tion by a dentist can hardly be begun too early. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 393 

certain predisposition to them, if only in their necessary relation to 
anatomical structure; but I saw little of that immediate, unacquired 
adaptiveness in the movements, or strong impulse toward them, 
which characterized the true instincts. The one exception was the 
case of pulling with the arms to raise herself (see Sitting, p. 328), 
which did seem instinctive. One may see, also, a certain instinctive 
element in the great fancy for pulling against resistance (Muscular 
Sensation, pp. 189-90). 

In the eleventh and twelfth months, the mere exercise of these 
elementary manipulations, pushing and pulling objects about, made 
up a surprisingly large part of the baby's "play," and afforded a 
really remarkable amount of interest and pleasure, — pulling down 
books from shelves, opening and shutting doors, etc. In the 
second year, in larger variety, much of her play was still to be 
analyzed into the mere use of these movements, — as in dragging 
about a little wagon, etc. 

Kicking, as an instinctive movement, having adaptiveness, did 
not appear early. The mere muscular exercise of kicking was 
common in the early months (pp. 187-9); ^"^ kicking the legs up 
instead of making walking motions has already been mentioned in 
the account of the movements of locomotion. Throwing one leg 
out in a purely imitative way, when told to "kick," was done with 
some skill from the fifteenth month (how the movement origi- 
nated, whether spontaneous or taught the child in sport by some 
one, I do not know) ; and up to thirty months old, the word was 
still understood only thus intransitively: the idea of kicking an 
object had not appeared. Kicking her heels backward, against a 
seat she was sitting on (twenty-second month), or even swinging 
them forward (against the prop of her nursery chair tray, e. g.) I do 
not count as true kicking. So far as I know, she never saw any 
one kick an object, and when the movement did appear, it must 
have been quite instinctively. The first record I have of it is on 
the 683d day, twenty-third month, when the child was seized with 
an impulse to kick a toad, insisting that she "must kick toad;" 
and after this, she occasionally showed desire to kick small ani- 
mals. It was one of her methods of misbehavior toward her kitten, 
in the latter half of the third year. There did not seem to be 



394 University of California. [vol. i. 

animosity in it, certainly not anger; the source of the apparently 
uncontrollable impulse was hard to define. Kicking never entered 
into her rough play with us. 

Slapping and striking, however, was from the twelfth month, a 
common action in this roguish roughness. At intervals during the 
whole of the second and third year, the child would, when taken in 
arms, slap merrily at our faces, snatch at our hair, etc.; by the end 
of the nineteenth month she would strike with a stick, and later 
it was the presence of a stick in her hand that seemed to bewitch 
her to strike and bang with it, — not at people so often as at any 
object that she could make a good bang on, as the furniture ; but 
even as late as the thirty-sixth month, and on into the fourth year, 
I have notes of her striking people merely because she found a 
convenient stick in her hand (pp. 196-7). In the thirty-fourth 
month, she slapped her kitten sometimes, without discernible 
motive. I find but a single note of her ever striking in anger: 
this was when her grandmother held her still to be wiped, when 
she was in romping spirits after her bath (thirty-fifth month). 

In the latter part of the eleventh month, the trick of stiffening 
the body in resistance to being taken out of the bath, was acquired. 
This seems to have been purely instinctive, for the baby could 
hardly have known that it made it more difficult to lift her: it may 
have been more an expressive than resisting movement, however. 
In the thirteenth and fourteenth month (as has been related under 
Muscular Sensation, p. 185), if not interested when some one was 
holding her, or not desiring to be lifted, she would stiffen and 
wriggle away, or else, in the case of being lifted, would raise her 
arms and relax all her muscles limply, so that she would slip 
through the grasp, — also a highly instinctive device, it would 
appear. I note this slipping out of the hands now and then after- 
wards; but wriggling away was the commonest form of resistance; 
a sharp twisting away was observed in the eighteenth month. 
Direct pulling back was never noticed. The child appeared 
instinctively to feel the insufficiency of her strength in such 
resistance. 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 3.95 

The development of sniffing has already been mentioned, under 
Smell. This movement, beginning in the early months as a mere 
muscular exercise, or an expression of gayety, was later associated 
with smelling by deliberate teaching, and had no marked instinctive 
character; though it was doubtless, like many other movements, 
acquired more readily because of predisposition to the act. 



Some other movements, as throwing, might be considered so 
completely race movements, so certain to be taken up, through 
sheer predisposition to them, by every child, that they should be 
classed here : but as a matter of fact, these are acquired imitatively, 
or even taught, and I do not wish to extend the range of instinct 
too widely. Certainly it does not seem wise to include under it 
any movements that involve the use of a tool, even so simple a tool 
as a missile, — though I have necessarily spoken of striking with 
a stick in connection with striking with the hand. I may add that 
of all forms of using a weapon or tool, this striking with a stick 
seemed the most instinctive, — far more so than throwing. 

In many other movements besides those here described, an 
instinctive element is very plain. Many expressive movements, as 
laughing, are purely instinctive. On the other hand, in most of 
the instinctive movements, as walking, the constant use of volition 
and adaptive intelligence was strikingly evident. It is as impossible 
to distinguish sharply between instinctive and deliberate action 
as between reflex and instinctive. I must classify according to the 
element in the action that seems to predominate, or to be of the 
more importance and interest. 

Again, the presence of instinct affecting rather the central than 
the motor activities was often to be detected: there were strong 
instinctive elements in the emotions, for instance. These I shall 
call attention to when I come to them, but shall not attempt to 
disentangle from their more obvious connections, to class them in 
the present chapter. 



In all the types of movement described in the foregoing pages, 
race inheritance, not individual intelligence, has been the control- 



396 University of California. [Vol. i. 

ling element. The gap between these and ideational movements, 
in which the interest rests not in the movement itself but in the 
central activity which it expresses, is so wide that it does not seem 
to me logical to group them together, in a classified record- I 
close the subject of Movement, therefore, with the following sum- 
maries, leaving intelligent movements to be recorded under cate- 
gories belonging to the Intellect. 



SUMMARY AND TABLES RELATING TO THE NON- 
IDEATIONAL MOVEMENTS. 



Spontaneous Movements:^ Characterized by entire absence of 
purposiveness : — 

Table i. Spontaneous Movements. 



I. Purely spontaneous movements. Due to dif- 
fused stimulus irom. growth of lower motor centres. 
Gradually inhibited by co-ordinated movements, 
but surviving somewhat in sleep for several years. 



1st to 3d months. 

[Mrs. Moore, ist to 5th; 
Preyer, ist to 7th.] 



2. Similarly irregular movements, not purelj^ 
spontaneous but due to diffused stimulus from 
heightened general sensation. Passing under ordi- 
nary conditions into regular expressive movements, 
but surviving always as irregular e:>ccess move- 
ments of expression. 



1st to 3d months. 
[Preyer, ist to 7th.] 



3. Accompanying movements, due to diffused 
excess of voluntary motor stimulus, or strain of 
attention. 



From 6th week. 

[Mrs. Moore, from 9th 
week ; Preyer, from 8th 
month.] 



^Dr. Mumford's recent ingenious theory, which treats these as sitrvival 
movements dating back to the aquatic ancestry of man, must not be entirely 
ignored here. The obvious objection to the theory is the enormous antiquity 
of the survival: it seems incongruous that at a stage of development when 
structure is of a distinctly primate type, and the muscular condition reveals 
traces of the arboreal stage (as Dr. Robinson has plausibly shown), the pre- 
vailing movements should lapse back to a stage so inconceivably more remote. 
Even if the theory be accepted, it does not dispose of the classification of these 
movements as spontaneous in origin ; it simply accounts for the form they 
take, as the diffused stimulus passes into the easiest, because most ancient 
channels. But many of the movements — as the asymmetric movements of the 
eyes, the grimacing, the rolling of the head — certainly can not be brought 
under the theory at all. 

( 397 ) 



398 



Ujiiversity of California. 
II. 



[Vol. I. 



Reflex Movements: Involuntarily purposive. Following^ 
immediately on peripheral sensation, without necessity of central 
action, and along well-established paths (Preyer). 



Table 2. Commoner Reflexes. 



EARLIEST DATE OF 
APPEARANCE. 



ist day., 



ist day. 



1st day.. 



1st day 

1st day — 5th day.. 
1st day — ist week 

ist week 

1st week 

14th day 



1st fortnight. 
42d day 



MOVEMENT. 



i Swallowing^ 
Sneezing 
Crying 



Clasping^ 



Starting^. 



Hiccoughing. 



Choking. 



Coughing 

Yawning^ 

Stretching^ 

Throwing up arm^ 



Winkins 



Rubbing eyes 

(With yawning and 
stretching.) 



OBSERVER. 



Many observers. 



Moore. 



/ Preyer \ 

1 Champneys i 

Preyer 

Preyer 

Preyer 



/ Darwin \ 

\ Preyer J 

Darwin 



Preyer. 



Darwin 
Shinn. 



LATER DATES OF 
APPEARANCE. 



{4th day — Sully. 
5th day — Preyer. 
Very early— Shinn. 

f 3d day — Moore. 
\ 3d or 4th — Shinn. 
I 1st fortnight — 
L Darwin. 

f 1st week — Tracy. 
\ 28th day — Shinn. 

/ 1st week — Tracy. 
1 BySoth day— Shinn 

f 1st week — Tracy. 
\42d day — Shinn. 

[ Before 42d day — 
1 Shinn. 

42d day — Shinn. 

r 23d day — Shinn. 
-; Before 49th day — 
i Moore. 



r 23d day - 
1 44th day 



Shinn. 
- Hall. 



^ Prenatal, according to Preyer. 

^ Prenatal, according to Champneys. Preyer speaks of it as usual in the 
newborn, but does not report it in his own observations till 5th day. 

^ Classed by Tracy as "impulsive," or spontaneous. 

* Purposiveness is not very evident in such reflexes, but they seem survivals 
of escaping or defensive movements, retaining still a certain character of the 
sort, while the definiteness of their character and their immediate relation to 
peripheral stimulus distinguishes them clearly in actual observation from the 
mere overflow movements classed as "spontaneous." 

^ Not the mere closing of eyes at bright light, which may be seen from the 
first. 



Shinn.] 



The Development of a Child. 
III. 



399 



Instinctive Movements: — Purposive, in part consciously, in 
part unconsciously. Hereditary and racial, but developed largely 
under influence of individual experience and volition. 

1. Purely instinctive: — Sucking, licking, biting, smacking, 
thrusting out objects with tongue; turning head; striking, kicking 
(at objects); stiffening, relaxing, or wriggling away (to escape a 
hold); pulling against resistance; paddling to keep afloat in water; 
walking movements. 

2. Developed by effort, follozving on strongly instinctive impulse: — 
Holding up head; sitting, pulling self to sitting position, or raising 
body by abdominal muscles; kneeling, standing, walking, running, 
climbing. 

3. Selected movements, but determined largely by instinct: — 
Grasping; raising self to sitting position sidewise or backward; 
rolHng, creeping, rising to knees, sitting on heels; spitting out; 
sniffing; pushing and pulling. 

4. Imitative, and scarcely instinctive at all: — Jumping. 



Table 3. Development of Grasping: Transition from mouth 
to hands as grasping organ. 





- MOUTH AS GRASPING 


HANDS AS GRASPING 




ORGAN. 


ORGAN. 


1st month. 

1st 3 weeks. 


Special sensibility (passive) 
in lips and tongue. 
Sucking instinct. 


Reflex clasping. 




Tendency of hands to prenatal position, accidentally 
getting to mouth. 


4th week. 
5th week. 

2d month. 

7th week. 


Seizing with lips and suck- 
ing a surface brought in con- 
tact with them. 

Groping movements with 
head, to aid mouth grasp. 

Appearance of active touch 
in tongue. 




9th week. 


Precocious effort to carry object to mouth, repeating an 
accidental movement. 

1 Signs of special sensibility 
(passive) in fanger-tips. 



400 



University of California. 



[Vol. I. 



Table 3. — Continued. 



3d month. 

loth week. 



12th week. 



13th week. 

4tli montli. 

14th week. 
15th week. 
i6th week. 



At 16 weeks, 
(113th day.) 

17th week. 



5tli month. 

i8th week. 
19th week. 



MOUTH AS GRASPING 
ORGAN. 



HANDS AS GRASPING 
ORGAN. 

Longer clasping. Thumb 
reversed. 

Efforts to get hands to mouth. 

Hands carried constantly to mouth, sucked and mum- 
bled. 

Hands closed mechatdc- 
ally on objects touched. 
Objects in hands carried 
unintentionally to mouth 
with hands : association 
forming between the move- 
ment, and touch sensations 
in lips and tongue. 

Thumb carried to mouth at will and sucked 
Reashed by diving head 
down as much as by carry- 
ing thumb up. 

Appearance of active touch- 
in fingers. 

Longer and more or less 
conscious clasping. Pulling 
to raise self. Fumbling about 
for objects, and pickmg up 
deliberately when touched 
either by palm or back of 
hand, — first hand-grasping ., 
by feeling only. 
Deliberate efforts to put objects in mouth. 



Objects when felt often ' Growing skill in picking- 
sought with head, to grasp j up objects, i^o^'// hands used 
with mouth. 1 for heavy object. 

Growing skill in putting objects in mouth. Yet relation 
of hand and arm movements to touch sensations in mouth 
still imperfectly understood, as shown by blunders. 

Objects seen, then fum- 
bled for, and grasped when 
touched, — approach to true 
grasping. 

First attempt to grasp by 

visual guidance (ii8th day). 

Attempts to grasp with 

mouth or tongue by visual 

guidance (119th day). 



Grasping with mouth, by 
diving head at object, more 
frequent and skilful than 
grasping with hand. 



Slow improvement in 
grasping, — still largely grop- 
ing, and grasping on con- 
tact. 



Objects grasped solely for purpose of getting them to 
mouth. 



Shinn.] 



The Development of a Child. 
Table 3.— Concluded. 



401 



20th week. 
2 1st week. 



6tli montti. 



7tti month. 
Sth montti. 



9th month. 
10th month. 



MOUTH AS GRASPING 
ORGAN. 



HANDS AS GRASPING 
ORGAN. 



Head put down to grasp 
only when object does not 
move readily under hands. 

Mouth-grasp disappearing. 



I Great advance in skill. 
Simultaneous grasping with hands and mouth. 
Mouth put to object after the clutch with hands. 

Simple manipulation of object, instead of immediate 
putting to mouth. 

Seizing toes, with skilful 
co-operation of ankle. 

Usually both hands used, 
object cautiously inclosed 
between them. Practically 
no errors in distance or 
direction. 

Grasping now the chief 
and absorbing interest, — 
everything reached for. 

More varied handling, 
greatly increased skill : e.g., 
heavy glass marble, i^ 
inches diam., held in one 
hand, and ball, 2 inches, in 
the other. Yet still clumsy, 
thumb not always reversed, 
etc. 

Toes carried skilfully to 
mouth . 

Decline in interest in 
grasping, superseded by 
interest in locomotion. 

Swift snatching appears. 

Grasping with finger-/z^.y 
quite imperfect. 

Finger-tips more skilful; 
pin picked up with ease; 
single hair played with. 

Right forefinger tip dif- 
ferentiated for delicate inves- 
tigation. 



Objects less promptly car- 
ried to mouth, sometimes 
not at all. 



Objects rarely carried to 
mouth. "^ 



Table 4. Priority of Mouth in Touch and Prehension. 



STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT 



Special passive sensibility 

Grasping, on contact 

Groping, to grasp 

Active touch 

Grasping 



In lips and tongue, ist week 

With lips, 4th week 

With head , ijth week 

With tongue, "/th week 

With mouth, by head- 
movement, more fre- 
quent and skilful, up to 
20th week 



In fingers, gth week. 

With hands, loth week. 

With hands, 12th week. 

With fingers, 12th week. 

With hand, by arm-move- 
ment, more frequent and 
skilful, after 20th week. 



^ Recurrence of practice two or three times in the second year. 



402 University of Califoryiia. [Vol. i. 

Table 5. Sequence of Stages to Hand-Grasping. 

1. Reflex clasping. 

2. Hands often felt by lips and tongue, in connection with certain involun- 
tary arm-movements. 

3. Renewal of these sensations sought by voluntary repetition of the arm- 
movements. 

4. Sensations increased and varied by touch of objects, accidentally brought 
to mouth, after being mechanically clasped. 

5. Deliberate groping for and laying hold on familiar objects, in familiar 
place, to carry to mouth {i. e., repetition of movements that have often resulted 
in accidentally carrying objects to mouth: extension of the association series). 

6. Hands and objects seen, while grasping takes place; formation of visual 
association also. 

7. Grasping at objects visually located, for sole purpose of carrying to 
mouth. 

8. Grasping for varied purposes, manipulation, inspection, etc., as associa- 
tions increase in number and variety. 

It will be seen that my record of the development of grasping 
completely confirms Preyer's in the following respects : — 

(i) The origin in {a) reflex clasping; {b) tendency of the hands 
to move upward, accidentally reaching the mouth; {c) the sucking 
instinct. 

(2) The slow growth {a) of mechanical holding to an object 
once clasped, the thumb gradually becoming reversed (a stage 
which I saw by the ninth week, however, Professor Preyer not till 
the fourteenth); and {b) of laying hold on objects accidentally 
touched. 

(3) The final appearance of true, visually guided grasping at the 
end of the fourth month, — even in the same week, the seventeenth, 
in which he saw it. 

(4) The slow growth afterward of good co-ordination between 
thumb and fingers, and neat grasping. 

I can not find, however, that he observed at all : — 
(i) The persistent iwhintary carrying of hands, and afterward of 
accidentally clasped objects, to the mouth, before true grasping, — 
an action which according to my analysis above was an essential 
stage in forming the association series that brought about true 
grasping. 



shinn.] The Development of a Child. 403 

(2) The period of fumbling for objects, and grasping purposely 
but without visual guidance, — a period that lasted a month in the 
case of my niece, and brought the motor and tactile associations 
involved in grasping to considerable perfection, before the visual 
element was added. 

(3) The appearance of active touch about tongue and lips, and 
efforts to seize with the vioutJi, which in my record clearly precede 
active touch and prehension in the hands. 

With regard to these three points of difference: — 
I. Mrs. Moore's and Mrs. Hall's records agree with Professor 
Preyer's and mine in recognizing the early movement of hands to 
face and mouth, and the early clasping, as involuntary; and in 
noticing the period of gradually longer and more deliberate clasping 
that preceded true grasping. They also confirm my observation 
of a period of carrying the hands to the mouth with unmistaka- 
ble intention, before any intentional grasping was observed. No 
observer but myself, however, seems to have noticed any distinct 
period of carrying to the mouth objects held in the hand (at first 
those involuntarily clasped upon contact, and afterward those 
groped for in familiar places), before true grasping: but Sully has 
several notes implying some such period; Darwin places the habit 
of carrying things to the mouth so early (twelfth and thirteenth 
weeks) that it probably preceded grasping; and both Mrs. Moore 
and Mrs. Hall place the first true grasping so early (eleventh week 
and twelfth week) that it seems probable they classed as true 
grasping an early type which I agree with Preyer and Vierordt 
in thinking only apparent.^ If the latter view is correct, Mrs. 
Moore's observation that this early stage passed into the later 
one through a period in which the hand was watched while grasp- 
ing took place, confirms mine and my analysis above (Table 5) 
in a striking manner. In the case of my niece, others about the 
child believed that she was really grasping with intention and 
visual guidance some time before I did. If my analysis in Table 5 
is correct, grasping is largely an empiric act, reached through con- 

1 The Senses and the Will, p. 246. 

27 



404 University of California. [Vol. i. 

secutive series of associations. If, on the other hand, the first 
visually guided grasping comes without some such succession of 
stages, it must be regarded as much more purely instinctive than 
in my interpretation. I shall show in a later publication the bear- 
ing that this question has on my observations as to the visual per- 
ception of space and form. 

2. The noticeable period oi feeling for objects and grasping upon 
contact, in the case of my niece, was doubtless due to the fact that 
she was from the twelfth week propped among cushions in a chair, 
with convenient objects on the tray before her, where she learned 
to expect to find them. To this gradual acquirement of muscular 
co-ordinations was also due, perhaps, the caution and accuracy of 
her grasp from the first, and the use of both hands, while Preyer's 
child often estimated distance and direction wrong, and for weeks 
used only one hand. 

3. As to the mouth-grasp, it may have been an individual trick 
in the case of my niece, or may be an essential stage in develop- 
ment, overlooked by other observers; the question should be settled 
by farther observation.'" Professor Preyer, though an almost infal- 
lible observer, was so prepossessed by the idea of taste association 
in his interpretation of the early importance of the mouth in con- 
sciousness, that he may have failed to notice some significant indi- 
cations of its part in touch and prehension. But traces of such 
a stage appear in his record, and in those of several other observers: 
his child brought the mouth down to an object that did not move 
readily under the hands, just as my niece did; Mrs. Moore's groped 
for the breast with the head, in the second week, and afterward, in 
the ninth, made reaches for it with head and neck; while Sully's, in 
the nineteenth week, made efforts to seize a biscuit with the mouth. 

The following table will show how my observations of the stages 
of development in hand grasping compare chronologically with 
those of others. I enter in it only such stages as are reported by 
other observers besides myself. 

^ As these pages go to press, I find that I had overlooked Tiedemann's dis- 
tinct note of a passing habit of mouth grasping, confirmed by Perez; but neither 
observer assigns it to a definite place in the development of grasping. 



Shinn ] 



The Development of a Child. 



405 



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4o6 



U7iiversitv of California. 



[Vol. I 



Table 7. Movements of Equilibrium and Locomotion 
Chronological Succession. 





TURNING 


BALANCING 


SITTING. 


OTHER MOVEMENTS. 




HEAD. 


HEAD. 






1st Month. 










1st week. 


Instinctive 
or spontane- 
ous rolling of 
head. 








2d week. 




Special in- 
nervation of 
neck mus- 
cles. 






3d week. 


More ap- 
pearance of 


First efforts 
to Hft head. 






4th week. 


volition in 
turning head 
to look. 








2d Month. 










5th week. 


Head turned 
freely at will. 








6th week. 




Head first 
balanced 
erect. 






7th week. 


Head first 
turned while 
balanced. 








9th week. 






Desire for 
upright posi- 
tions and ef- 
fort to hold 
back erect. 




3d Month. 








4- 


nth week. 


Head turned 
freely at will 
while bal- 
anced. 


Head bal- 
anced per- 
fectly. 






12th week. 






Efforts to 
raise self. 




4th Month. 






Sitting with 
support be- 
comes habit- 
ual position. 





[The power of turning and balancing the head having been attained for life 
early in the third month, I drop these two columns from the table.] 



Shinn.] 



The Development of a Child. 
Table 7. — Continued. 



407 





SITTING. 


ROLLING. 


CREEPING. 


OTHER MOVEMENTS. 


5th Month. 


Sitting with 








19th week. 


less and less 
support, till 
the slightest 
steadying is 


Turning 
over from 
back to 
side. 






20th week. 


enough. 




Effort to strain forward and reach ob- 


6th Month. 






ject, — first attempt at locomotion. 




Sitting with- 








24th week. 


out support, Rolling 


Approxi- 






with slowly 


over from 


mate creep- 






increasing 


back to 


ing move- 






security f 


stomach . 


ment, with- 






balance. 




out inten- 




7th Month. 


Secure sit- 




tion. 




27th week. 


t i n g as a 








28th week. 


rule, but oc- 
casional fall. 


Rolling 
from stom- 
ach to back 

Rolling 






30th week. 


KNEEL- 


STAND- 


WALK- 






over and 




ING. 


ING. 


ING. 






over freely. 










8th Month. 






32d week. 








Pulling self to 
knees and partly to 
feet. 




33d week. 






Random 
creeping 
position 
and move- 
ments fre- 
quent. 

Drew self 
forward, 
flat on 
stomach. 












Great and joyous ac- 








34th week. 


Acquire- 


tivity in free kicking, 










ment of sun- 


rolling, twisting about, 




Daily 




35th week. 


dry methods 


with random creeping 




pulling to 






of sitting up 


movements. 




feet. 




9th Month. 


at will. 
















Creepmg 


Rising 












backward. 


freely to 






36th week. 




Rolling 


First true 


knees 




First 






from now 


creeping. 


without 




walk ing 






on a b a n- 




support. 




m V e- 






doned. 








ments. 


37th week. 


INIedley of' positions and movements, sitting, kneel- 






ing, creeping, scrambling, pulling to feet, &c. 





[The only farther progress under the head of sitting was the learning to sit 
down backward, in the 15th month, and rolling was abandoned, so I drop these 
- two columns from the table. ] 



4o8 



University of California. 
Table 7. — Continued. 



[Vol. 1. 



lOtti Month 

40th week. 



41st week. 
42d week. 

43d week. 
44th week. 

nth Month 

45th week. 



46th week. 
47th week. 
48th week. 



CREEPING. 



KNEELING. 



STANDING. 



Disappearance of varied movements 
by selection of best adapted, especially 
standing and creeping. 



Rapid and 
free creep- 



12th Month 

50th week. 

51st week. 



Dropping 
from feet to 
knees, hold- 
ing to sup- 
port. 



Creeping 
on hands and 
feet, rather 
than hands 
and knees, 
to the end of 
the year. 



Constant ef- 
forts to stand 
alone. 

Stand ing 
alone a few 
seconds. 



Rising to 
feet without 
help. 

Standin 
alone s e 
curely. 



WALKING. 



Stepping 
along, hold 
ing to sup- 
port. 



Walks led 
by one hand, 
but no inch 
nation to do 
it. 



CLIMBING. 



Letting 
self down by 
hands, from 
chair. 



Pulling 
self up step. 



Climbing 
up and down 
stairs. Ef- 
forts to 
climb boxes, 
chairs, etc. 



Incessant joyous activity, standing up and sitting down, edg- 
ing, creeping, and climbing about. 

Bold, free, 
and constant 
A few steps c 1 i m b i n 
alone, at first throughout 
coaxed, at the month, 
last volunta- 
rily. 



[Kneeling and standing had now been for some two months well acquired 
(it remains only to note that standing on one foot was seen in the 29th month) ; 
and as creeping was abandoned during the thirteenth month, I drop these three 
columns from the table for the second year.] 



Shinn.] 



The Development of a Child. 
Table 7. — Concluded. 



409 



13 til Month 

53d week. 



54th week. 
55th week. 



56th week. 

14th Month 
15th Month 

16th Month 
17th Month 

18th Month 



19th-24th 
Months 



3d Year 



WALKING. 



Walking free- 
ly, steadied by 
finger. 

Across a room 
alone. 

Walking alone 
with secure bal- 
ance, turning, 
bending, step- 
ping over slight 
obstacles. 

Toddling free- 
ly about gar- 
den, hundreds 
of feet. 

Incessant tod- 
dling about. 



Gait increased 
when eager to a 
sort of trot. 



Almost runs 
when eager, — 
clumsy trot. 

Trotting a 
great deal. 
Walking almost abandoned 
for the trotting gait. 
Walking back 



CLIMBING. 



Climbing per- 
p e t u a 1 1 y in- 
creases in skill 
and V a f i e t y 
throughout 
month . 



ward 

Stepping up 
and down, — 
downstairs 
without help. 

Stepping up- 
stairs without 
help. 

Incessant and joyous activity 

Distances up to mile or more. 
Still occasional tripping. 



Perpetual de- 
sire to climb, 
and grow ing 
ability: in- 
creased heights 
constantly 
climbed. 



Running about 
untiringly, with 
joy and exulta-j Into chairs, 
tion. Still trips! Into high 
often. chair. 



Last note of tripping in 29th 
month. 



Ladders from 
2 1st month. 



Unflagging 
zeal in climbing 
Trees climbed 
30th month. 



JUMPING. 



Imitative ef- 
forts to jump. 



Acquired at 
23 months, and 
zealously prac- 
ticed. 

Never a com- 
mon movement: 
jumping down 
occasionally 
practiced 



4IO University of California. [Vol. i. 

The diagrams on the opposite page summarize the chronological 
succession of the movements very briefly, and compare my results 
with those of the other observers who have recorded at all fully 
the process of acquiring these powers. Most observers give only 
the date of acquirement of each movement recorded by them.^ 

I have tried to supplement these diagrams with a comparative 
table of such dates as are afforded by the reports of other 
observers : but so many of these are unavailable for comparison 
(for the reasons given in the foot-note^), that I abandoned the 
effort after any complete comparison, and contented myself with 
a mere table of extreme dates (Table 8), which will give an idea 
of the range of variation so far recorded. It should be noted, 
however, that in several cases earlier dates are reported than are 
given in the table, but not in such terms that I can be certain of 
the stage of development really meant : thus, for example, two of 
the Talbot papers report children as " sitting alone " at five months 
old, but I cannot tell whether this means that secure sitting alone 
for minutes together, on a perfectly level surface, was really attained. 

The table shows plainly that the American children were more 
active in acquiring the earlier movements: the full text of the 

^ Such bare dates are of little use even for mere comparison of the periods 
of completion in development, because in the gradual process each observer 
may set down a different stage as marking practical completion. He records, 
for instance, "Sat alone at six months old." Does this mean that the child for 
the first time succeeded in balancing for a second or two, or that sitting with 
secure balance was acquired as a habit for life ? In the case of my niece, three 
months intervened between these two stages. Did the child sit on a cushion, 
lap, or other yielding surface, affording even the slightest support about the 
buttocks, or on a flat, hard surface ? My record shows two weeks between these 
stages, and Mrs. Wood'sa month, while Preyer also noticed that sitting on the 
hard level was a more difficult and later achievement. Does "standing alone" 
refer to the first successful balancing, or to secure equilibrium for minutes at a 
time ? After the former stage was attained, it took Mrs. Hall's boy two months 
to reach the latter; my niece required three months, and Preyer's child not less 
than eight months, the whole process of learning to creep, walk, and run 
coming in between. Even the order of succession of the movements is 
valueless for comparative purposes when we do not know what stage of the 
process of acquirement the note refers to ; this is evident by a glance at the 
diagrams, with reference to the question whether creeping came before or 
after kneeling, for instance, in my record, or standing in Preyer's and 
walking in Mrs. Hall's. 



Shinn.] 



Tke Development of a Child. 



411 



^ A A ^ ^ ^ 



■a Si A 



s 


g 


S 


s 


C 


:= 


S 


a 


a 


^ 


X. 


X'a 


-G 


_2 


^ 


r< 


J3 


<-j 






















H 


M 






M 


»o 




oa 




First effort or tendency 

I, Miss Shinn's record: 2, Prof. Preyer's; 3, Mrs. Hall's; 4, Mrs. Beatty's. 

The dotted lines indicate the decline and disappearance of the movement. 

The broken lines show that the record was incomplete. In a few cases, 
however (as "rolling" in Prof. Preyer's record), the movement itself was but 
partly developed by the child. 



412 



Ujiiversitv of California, 



[Vol. I. 



records shows them on the whole somewhat in advance of the 
European children in standing and walking (though the European 
children began earlier), and notably so in climbing. The difference 
may well be due to the degree of freedom allowed in dress and 
position; and the very fact of restriction in the earlier movements 
may hasten the beginning of the later ones. 

No regular difference between girls and boys, in strength, pre- 
cocity, or method of acquiring the movements, can be detected 
from any evidence so far attainable. The resemblance in these 
respects between an American girl and an American boy seems 
closer than between an American boy and a German boy. But the 
number of records is too small to justify any generalization here. 
It is a reasonable presumption that small, light children will be earlier 
in acquiring balance and locomotion, and this accords with the gen- 
eral impression of mothers and nurses; and the statistics tend to 
show that girls are smaller and lighter than boys in the earliest 
years, though according to Dr. Burk (Growth of Children in Height 
and Weight) the difference is not marked nor conclusively established. 

Table 8. Extreme Dates of Acquiring Instinctive Movements. 



MOVEMENT. 



Holding head- 
ist effort 



Habit. 



EARLIEST DATE RECORDED. 



rWood 
ist day \ Talbot Papers, case E, 

( two children 
nth week, Shinn , 



Sitting — 
1st effort 

Habit 



Standing — ■ 

1st effort 

Several min- 
utes alone 



lothweek, Wood 

£.. , r Wood> 

26th week I Shinn) " 

iSth week, Sigismund. 
40th week, Demme 



Walking — 
ist movements 
Free walking 
alone j 8 months, Sigismund 



19th week, Champneys . 



LATEST DATE RECORDED 



.nth week, Preyer. 
.24 weeks, Demme. 



i8th week, Hall. 

.11 months, Demme. 



.14th month, Preyer.' 
....70th week, Preyer. 



....41st week, Preyer. 
.24th month, Demme. 



^ Not his own observation; reported from "trustworthy parents." 

The following appear to me the most important results brought 
out by my own. record of the movements of equilibrium and loco- 
motion, checked by comparison with other records : — 



Shinn.j The Development of a Child. 413 

1. The rudimentary origin and gradual development of some of 
these movements. Thus, holding up the head seemed to develop 
out of a mere special innervation of the neck muscles, at times of 
heightened general stimulus; sitting began v/ith a mere stiffening 
of the back against a support ; creeping defined itself out of a 
medley of experiments in moving the body and limbs about. In 
some cases the steps of development seemed largely empiric, in 
others instinctive, and in some cases (notably in that of walking), 
the first sign of the movement seemed completely instinctive : but 
on the whole, careful watching seemed to reveal a more gradual 
process from smaller beginnings — to analyze the movements 
down into simpler elements, so to speak — than one would suppose 
from casual observation. The same thing seems to be true even of 
the very precocious instincts of young animals. Professor Morgan 
and Doctor Mills finding some little development from imperfect 
beginnings where the earlier observers had seen only instincts 
innately complete. 

I do not find that any other observer reports quite so primitive 
beginnings in these movements as I do ; but I suspect this is 
rather because the observer has not cared to push his record so 
far back than because such primitive stages did not occur. 

2. The marked priority of the movements of the head, trunk, 
and arms over those in which the legs took part. There were two 
distinct periods, — one (extending through the first seven months) in 
which the main development was in sense perception, together with 
the closely correlated power of grasping, but in which balancing 
and turning the head, sitting, and rolling, followed in distinct 
succession ; and another (extending through a half-year more) in 
which the main activity was in the development of locomotion 
and of equilibrium in the erect position, the movements developing 
alongside each other with much less distinct order of succession. 

These two periods are clearly evident in the notes of other 
observers, though their duration varies. In all the records we 
have, the movements of the first period follow in strikingly 
similar succession, though Mrs. Hall omits record of balancing the 
head, and Preyer's child apparently was never given the oppor- 
tunity to develop rolling. Mrs. Beatty and Mrs. Sharp do not 
record the earlier periods at all. 



414 Uiiiva^sity af California. [Vol. i. 

3. The late and empiric development of creeping. If we are 
to regard this movement as a survival of a four-footed mode of 
progression, it is curious to find it so late, after sitting and rolling, 
even after standing and a fair degree of progress in walking: yet 
all the observers agree as to this tardy development of creeping.^ 
Moreover, it is the most uncertain and variable of all the instinctive 
movements. The use of hands and knees, which is more common 
than that of hands and feet, is perhaps easily accounted for by the 
length of the human leg; but this is the least of the variations. 
My niece drew herself forward with her elbows, flat on her stom- 
ach, before she could creep; Mrs. Sharp's eldest boy did the same; 
Preyer says of the first creeping, " Can creep, or rather drag himself 
along somewhat." Mrs. Wood's elder boy propelled himself "in 
measure-worm fashion," and her younger one wriggled along, and 
later drew himself forward with his arms, and at one time learned 
to steer himself in rolling, and used that as a means of voluntary 
locomotion instead of creeping; Mrs. Hall's boy hitched along in a 
sitting position before he could creep. Every one has known of 
babies who with every opportunity never creep at all, hitching or 
rolling instead ; and Dr. Le Conte tells me of instances in which 
the creeping is tripedal, one leg being trailed along idle. It is 
curious to see so often reported an involuntary backivard move- 
ment (highly displeasing to the child, whom it takes directly away 
from the objects he is trying to reach), immediately preceding 
successful creeping: so in my record (above, p. 340), Mrs. Beatty's 
(below, p. 420) and Mrs. Hall's.^ In some cases, as in that of Mrs. 
Wood's younger boy (below, p. 424), there seems to be a strong 
instinctive impulse toward proper creeping ; but on the whole the 
impulse is vague, urging only to locomotion of some sort, in 
striking contrast to the definite instinct which sets the baby's legs 
mechanically to executing the alternate motions of walking, late 
and difficult though that movement is in race history. 

If we are to regard creeping as a survival, its late appearance 
and uncertainty may be due to its slight usefulness in human life, 

^Preyer mentions a child who began to creep in the fifth month; but it is 
not his own observation, and I know of no other case so early. 
2 Child Study Monthly, Vol. II, p. 403. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 415 

or to human customs of dressing and tending infants, — to swad- 
dling-bands and skirts, to constant holding in the arms, or con- 
fining in baskets, pouches, and cribs. No doubt it has been of 
inestimable value to the race that infants have been thus protected 
from exposure and accident; but it may have involved a minor 
disadvantage in breaking up a normal creeping period. Mrs. 
Wood's record and mine both note early attempts at creeping, 
abandoned in favor of rolling, a movement much more practicable 
in skirts. It would be worth while to observe whether nude 
babies, left free in warm climates to tumble about on the ground, 
creep earlier It is, however, possible to doubt whether four- 
footed locomotion was ever much developed in the direct line of 
human ancestry (see below, p. 416). 

4. The early development of climbing — in advance of walking 
— ■ and also the strength of the climbing instinct. Mrs. Beatty's 
record corroborates mine strongly in this (p. 421). Mrs. Sharp 
mentions climbing before standing and walking alone (p. 423); 
.and so also does Mrs. Wood, if we are to understand the " creeping 
upstairs" in the tenth month (p. 423) as properly climbing. Mrs. 
Hall does not record this movement at all, and Preyer alone places 
it late, in the third year. There are many indications that Professor 
Preyer's child was given far less opportunity for spontaneous mus- 
cular activity than the American children, and climbing is a move- 
ment quite dependent upon free opportunity ; so that I think the 
other records on the whole confirm mine as to its early importance. 
Mrs. Chapman (whose notes I have several tim^es quoted in the 
preceding pages) did not keep regular record of the instinctive 
movements, but writes me that her three children all climbed 
before they could walk, and that a neighbor's baby, eleven months 
old, is now climbing, though unable to walk; and several other 
cases are reported to me. 

When we observe the method of climbing, placing the knee or 
foot on a higher level and pulling up by the hands ; when we observe 
also that the first kneeling and standing come from a strikingly 
instinctive tendency to pull the body upward with the hands, which 
shows itself very clearly in the development of sitting also ; and 
when we add to this Dr. Robinson's well-known demonstration of 
the monkey-like clinging power of infants' hands from birth, — we 



4 1 6 University of Calijoniia. [Vol. i. 

can hardly fail to question whether standing and kneeling may not 
have originated in climbing, the feet or knees braced on a lower 
branch, while the hands clung to a higher one. I do not overlook 
the important influence that the use of the upper limbs for grasping 
and striking would have had in bringing the body erect and 
relegating locomotion to the lower limbs : but in my obsetvations 
striking came later than climbing ; and though developed grasping 
came much earlier than developed climbing, the rudiments of both, 
reflex clasping and strong clinging, are alike present at birth. 

During an arboreal period which developed standing and kneel- 
ing, and perhaps sitting also, progression on the ground would have 
been on all fours. But as I have hinted above, we are not obliged 
to suppose that this sort of locomotion ever reached any high devel- 
opment. If we follow those zoologists who regard the edentates 
(including the arboreal sloths) as representatives of the earliest 
generalized type of placental mammals, and the lemurs as repre- 
sentatives of the earliest primates, we trace human ancestry through 
types which were never free runners on all fours, and which may 
have led an arboreal life during the whole period, merely crawling 
slowly on the ground.' The still highly general type of the human 
hand is against the supposition that it was ever to any great extent 
used as a foot. Here we have, perhaps, a better reason for the late 
and variable development of creeping than the one suggested 
above (p. 415). 

^ Going even back of the edentates, we have the marsupials, with their 
strongly arboreal tendency. The indications seem to point to a life more 
arboreal than terrestrial in our direct line of ancestry almost or quite back to 
the first divergence of mammalian from amphibian types. It is worth observ- 
ing that any arboreal animal too large to keep its young in holes in trees, like 
squirrels, must necessarily give them greater care than a terrestrial animal, 
which can leave them on the ground: they must be constantly held in pouch or 
arms, and carried about. Here would be a strong agency in bringing about 
that care of helpless infancy which, according to Prof. Fiske, is the origin of 
our humanity. Mrs. Chapman writes of one of her boys that he "climbed 
persistently and in most dangerous places, preferably up the waste pipe at the 
side of the house, and up perpendicular scantlings, until about seven or eight 
years old, when he suddenly stopped, and has never showed any particular love 
of climbing since." This passionate impulse to climb, declining at six or seven 
years old, is, I think, not uncommon. It is evident that it falls in well with the 
theory of a long arboreal life, ending somewhere about the early human period. 



shinn.] The Develop7nent of a Child, 417 

5. The remarkable joy, pride, and physical exhilaration attend- 
ing the acquirement of some of these movements. This appears 
more or less in all records, though in several cases the pleasure was 
marred by timidity, which my niece never experienced to a painful 
extent. 

6, The similarity, on the whole, in the manner of develop- 
ment of the movements in different children. On casual compari- 
son the variations are most striking; but on close examination of 
the records the only important difference seems to be that a move- 
ment is sometimes held back a long time, either by lack of oppor- 
tunity or lack of confidence, and is then executed suddenly, — a well- 
known occurrence in case of artificially delayed instincts, as when 
young birds are prevented from flying till beyond the usual time. 
For the rest, certain details of the process of development recur in 
the different records to a noticeable extent: as the wriggling or pull- 
ing forward before true creeping, and the involuntary backward creep- 
ing before the forward movement is mastered (p. 414); the pulling to 
the feet, first by some low object so that the body is still partly 
propped by the arms, then by a higher (p. 342, and also Mrs. 
Beatty's note, p. 420), and later yet the rising from all fours. The 
postponement of standing alone till after walking, walking till after 
running, in the case of Preyer's boy, seem to be distortions of the 
usual order, due to deferring of the instinct, through timidity; and 
this timidity Preyer thought actually increased, to the delay of the 
development, through efforts to hasten walking and standing; and 
Mrs. Beatty had a similar impression with regard to her boy (p. 421). 



Some pedagogical conclusions are clearly indicated: — 
I. It seems evident that the infant should have by the second 
quarter-year the utmost freedom of limbs and opportunity of move- 
ment on the floor that is possible without exposure to cold or acci- 
dent. Any such exposure, however, is more serious than the 
restriction of muscular development: so that to avoid both evils 
may demand vigilant care. If the mother is so circumstanced 
that she can give this watchfulness, she should not grudge the 
trouble: it requires a kind of devotion not often to be expected from 
a servant. A year-old baby, for instance, may be allowed extensive 



41^ University of California. [Vol. i. 

climbing, to his physical and mental advantage, if some one is so 
close at hand, and so unfailing in attention, that the little one can- 
not slip without finding himself instantly safe in arms. 

2, While there is no harm in some little encouragement where 
it seems needed, any more than in the birds' teaching their babies 
to fly, it need hardly be said nowadays that none of these move- 
ments should be urged and hastened, and especially that the baby 
should not be allowed to bear his own weight, in sitting, standing, or 
walking, till he is unmistakably able to ; nor is it desirable to urge 
a feat of balancing upon a timid child, even when he is plainly 
capable of it, lest he get fixed associations of fear with it, and be 
actually held back in progress. For the scientific observer's pur- 
pose, of course, the more absolutely spontaneous the development 
the better always. But where a child has become discouraged, or 
hcis been held back a long time by timidit3^ a little cautious coax- 
ing past the sticking-point may be the wisest thing pedagogically. 
Nothing can take the place of motherly common sense in such a 
matter. 

3. From the time the child has fairly mastered the race move- 
ments, the mother should be alert to notice any special clumsiness 
of gait or bearing, and to determine, by comparison with other 
children, whether it is a mere natural phase of growth, or the 
beginning of a fixed individual trick. It will scarcely define itself 
as the latter within the first three years, but it will often do so in 
the next two or three ; and whenever it does (I may here go beyond 
the limit of this record to say), if there is available a competent 
authority in such matters, able to determine the exact fault of 
muscular development that causes the trick, and to prescribe plays 
and movements that will gently correct it, the mother should 
consult him. The freest activity of the healthiest child is not a 
guarantee of symmetry. In the first difficulties of balancing, 
babies may throw themselves into bad attitudes that become fixed 
habits. Or they inherit feeble development of this or that muscle, 
which is therefore neglected in use, and becomes still feebler; and 
where it fails in its due tension, the opposite muscle over-pulls the 
bone, and the distortion in time becomes fixed in the bony structure. 
Thus very little children may be caught habitually standing on one 
foot, resting on the heels with abdominal muscles relaxed, dropping 



Shinn.] 



The Development of a Child. 



419 



the shoulders forward, etc., — tricks that are not only ungraceful, 
but likely to produce spinal curvatures, narrowed chests, and other 
serious physical ills. There is little use in the mother's trying to 
correct such faults, for all she can do, even with older children, is 
constantly to warn them to correct their positions ; the weak 
muscle can be pulled to its place for the moment by an effort, but 
the instant attention is withdrawn, the muscle relaxes, and nothing 
is gained. Yet the faults, even where they are strongly hereditary, 
are corrected with singular ease in these early years by special 
exercise, as I know from the case of my niece, who at seven years 
old showed remarkable improvement in her whole carriage, as the 
result of exercises, within a month. Symmetrical muscular devel- 
opment, however, is not ordinarily included in the range of a 
physician's studies ; nor do many physicians care to occupy them- 
selves with a child's turned-in toes or slovenly way of sitting. Until 
competent gymnasium teachers, therefore, are far more numerous 
in the community, it will often be impossible for the mother to get 
proper advice about matters of gait and bearing. In that case, it 
will be better for her to trust to the utmost general freedom and 
activity of the body than to take risks from ignorantly prescribed 
special treatment. 

Table 9. Instincts Connected with Food-Taking. 



EARLIEST DATE OF 
APPEARANCE. 



At birth. 



1st day 

1st week,, 



3d month 

15th week 

loth to 20th months. 



MOVEMENT. 



Sucking- , 



Licking 

Thrusting 

out nipple.., 
Smacking..., 

Biting 

Spitting out. 



OBSERVER. 



Preyer and other 
observers 



Preyer ■ 



Shinn . 
Shinn . 
Shinn . 
Shinn . 



LATER DATES OF APPEAR- 
ANCE. 



[I do not know o'f any re- 
corded case in which 
this movement did not 
appear on the first op- 
portunity, usually 1st 
day; cases are indefi- 
nitely reported in which 
it was at first very imper- 
fect.] 

2 months, Shinn. 



.3d to 5th week, Preyer. 

nth month, Preyer. 

...By 17th week, Preyer. 



Of the other instinctive 
there is not enough record 
comparative tabulating. 



movements, described on pp. 392-5, 
made by other observers to be worth 
MiLicENT Washburn* Shinn. 



2R 



OTHER RECORDS OF THE INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 

From Mrs. Beatty's MS. Record (see p. 22). 

In the eighth month the baby was trying to creep, rising on hands and toes, 
but in his first efforts he pushed himself involuntarily backward. This always 
made him angry, as he kept getting farther and farther away from the object 
he was trying to reach. This continued till late in the eighth or early in the ninth 
month. During the ninth month, he was in camp, and had no opportunity to 
creep except on the bed; but I saw him one day creeping forward across the 
bed; and after this he could steer in the direction he wished to go. After 
returning home he crept quite rapidly, turning out his toes. In the eleventh 
month he sometimes crept on hands and knees, and sometimes on hands and 
toes. 

By this time (eleventh month) he was pulling himself to his feet, but only by 
rather low objects, as a cracker-box [so that his weight was partly propped by 
his hands, as in the case of my niece at the same stage: see p. 342. M. W. 6".]; 
but by the middle of the month he would get to his feet by almost any 
object, his mother's skirt, e. g. He could now stand by a chair, and keep- 
ing hold with one hand could lean over and take things from the floor. He 
rarely lost balance, and daily gained more ease and confidence in standing. 
In the forty-seventh week, however, as he stood by a light kitchen chair, which 
moved a little over the uncarpeted floor as he pushed against it, he became 
alarmed, drew back, stood alone for a second, then sat down suddenly, crying 
with fright. 

About this same time, the middle of the eleventh month (forty-sixth week), 
he made an important advance toward walking. He was standing by his 
mother's knee, and desired to investigate the contents of a basket on a chair 
near by. Reaching out with one hand, he steadied himself by the chair; then 
letting go his mother's dress with the other hand, he tried to find a hold for it 
on the chair. He had some difficulty in doing so, bent over to take hold of the 
rung, and finding that would compel him to stoop, at last placed both hands on 
the seat of the chair, and stepped over to it. In the forty-eighth week, as he 
stood by the lounge, he reached out his hand and caught his mother by the 
dress, then by the hand, and by pulling managed to step over to her. In the 
next few days he became able, by taking my hand, and pressing his other hand 
against a wall, to step along slowly; and he would edge all about large, heavy 
chairs, holding to them. The last day of the month he was shown how to 
push a light chair before him over a matting-covered floor : he was highly 
delighted with this mode of locomotion, and moved rapidly about the room 
with the chair, although less than a fortnight earlier he had been so frightened 
at the slight moving of a chair under his hands. 

In the I'ktter part of this same active month, the eleventh, he began to let 
(420) 



Shinn.1 The Development of a Child. 42 I , 

himself cautiously down by his arms from the lounge, — at first not unless 
some one was close beside him; but in the forty-eighth we'ek he repeatedly did 
it quite alone. I was told in this week that he had climbed up on the lounge 
alone, but I thought it very doubtful. 



During the next three months creeping continued a constant habit. One 
or two indispositions, and still more, lack of confidence, delayed the baby's 
progress toward standing and walking alone, and in the latter part of the four- 
teenth month he still stood alone only when he became interested in something 
and forgot to hold on ; at such times he now and then fell over. In the sixtieth 
week he once took a squatting position, preparing to rise to his feet; but only 
because he expected me to take liis hands and help him ; and when I did not 
do so, he dropped down on hands and knees. 

He gained gradually in steadiness in walking by a support, and seemed 
able to walk alone, but made no effort to do so. By the end of the thirteenth 
month he could walk pretty weir by taking hold of one of my fingers, but he 
preferred to cling to my dress at the same time, with the other hand. He now 
usually walked quite fast. By the end of the fourteenth month, he needed 
but the slightest hold on my finger to walk easily; he could push a chair 
all around the dining-table, and if it encountered any obstacle could turn 
it without help ; could walk along by merely putting his hand against the wall : 
but any effort to have him walk quite alone caused such excitement and 
timidity that we did not urge him. At last, in the sixtieth week, he took a step 
alone without knowing it, when I had released my hold on his arm. A few 
days later he took three steps to reach me, and the same day his father vouched 
for four steps, in \\\y absence. 

His progress in climbing during this period was more vigorous. In the 
latter part of the thirteenth month he had a perfect fever for climbing. He 
would mount to a stool by means of a chair close by ; would climb over the 
rockers of the rocking-chairs ; try to climb into boxes ; scramble up on the 
lower shelf of a stand on one side, and off it on the other; etc. 



In the fifteenth month, the child for a time seemed to have gained no con- 
fidence from his successful steps alone in the fourteenth; so that in the sixty- 
fourth week his father and I began to coax him to walk from one to the other ; 
and by gradually increasing the distance lured him thus to walk across the 
room alone several times. After this if I took his hand off a chair, he would 
walk alone, but would not voluntarily quit his support till near the end of the 
week (the sixty-fourth). On the same day on which he first took his hand thus 
Off a chair to walk alone, he started to walk from his grandmother to me, but 
when he had gone half way, and I held out my arms to receive him, he sud- 
denly whirled about and walked back to his grandmother, evidently pleased 
that he had played a joke on me. He repeated this joke several times m the 
next few days. The day after, he left his uncle's knee to walk to his box of 
playthings across the room, and get somethuig he wished; and after this he 
frequently w^alked alone, though he would still become timorous, and drop 



42 2 Unive7'sity of Calif ortiia. [Vol. i. 

down and creep. It did not trouble him to step over door-sills, though up to 
the end of the month (fifteenth) he never tried them unless some one was close 
by to catch him in case of accident. He walked with his arms raised and 
hands stretched out toward the object he was aiming at, and often balanced 
himself before starting out. 

Early in the sixteenth month (sixty-sixth week), he was walking freely all 
over the house, and with much less difficulty of balancing, though he still 
raised his arms somewhat. He often walked easily over door-sills, though 
sometimes they seemed to trouble him. He still dropped down to creep often, 
Ipsing confidence. On the 459th day, in walking from one object to another, 
he would run the last few steps, thinking it great fun. He improved daily in 
walking, and early in the sixty-seventh week had abandoned the practice of 
holding his hands up to balance; I even saw him walking with an object in each 
hand, and another in his teeth. He had comparatively few falls, and was less 
disposed to drop down and creep. By the middle of the month, if he lost his 
balance he would pick himself up and go on. In the sixty-eighth and sixty- 
ninth weeks, he was quite ill, and became so weak that he staggered when h 
walked; but as soon as he was well, returned to his walking energetically, and 
though not very firm on his legs, would not creep at all. 

Up to the sixty-sixth week he had still crept a great deal, especially when he 
felt uncertain on his feet, or happened to sit down on the floor, or was not 
near anything by which he could pull himself up. He was in these last weeks 
of creeping fond of going about on hands and feet, and could travel quite fast. 
But by the sixty-seventh week creeping had visibly declined, and in the sixty- 
eighth it was quite rare ; by the last week of the month, it seemed entirely 
abandoned. 

Standing alone made no progress till the child had acquired some con- 
fidence in walking ; but by the beginning of the sixteenth month he stood 
alone boldly in the middle of the floor, and stooped over and picked things 
up. In the next week (sixty-sixth), he lifted himself up to his feet from all- 
fours: and by the middle of the month could get up this way quite readily ; if 
he stepped on his dress, he would work his feet about till he got them free, 
then stand up. 

The mania for climbing is again recorded in the sixteenth month, the stairs 
now being the special object of desire. In the twentieth month the child first 
succeeded in mounting into a large chair, and displayed the feat with charming^ 
pride when his father came home. 

In the latter part of the nineteenth month walking was abandoned for a 
trotting gait. 

From Mrs. Sharp's MS. Record (see p. 21). 

ELDEST BOY. 

At just six months old the baby worked himself forward, trying to reach 
something on the floor: he was lying face down, and stretched his arms 
forward, bent at the elbows, and resting on his fore-arms, drew his body 
forward. He began to creep in the latter part of the seventh month. 



Shinn.] The Development of a Child. 423 

The first week of the twelfth month he walked alone, a distance of three 
or four feet between two chairs. 

YOUNGEST BOY. 

In the latter part of the seventh month, when laid on his back, the baby 
turned over on his face and turned back again with ease, without bumping his 
head, — the first time I had ever seen him do it. 

By the tenth month he crept rapidly. In the first week of this month he 
would pull himself up to his knees, and make violent efforts to get on his feet. 
He could do it with slight help, but could not bear his weight on them. 

In the first week of the eleventh month he still needed a little help in 
getting to his feet. Yet in this same week he could take a few steps pushing a 
chair, and could edge along the length of a sofa. 

At a year old he walked by chairs and walls and other slight support. 
When his four-year-old brother called him to play " choo-choo," he would pull 
himself to his feet by the back of his brother's dress, and trot slowly round 
the room after him. At the same age, he climbed into a double rocking-horse, 
and stood erect, holding the edge of a blackboard with one hand, while he 
marked on the board with a piece of chalk in the other. 



From MS. Records of Mrs. Edith Elmer Wood, B. L., Smith College. 

ELDER BOY. 

At four months old, if supported by a hand under the body, the baby would 
prance the length of a bed on his hands and feet. In the sixth month he 
could propel himself for short distances in measure-worm fashion. He had 
already, however, in the fifth month, become able to roll over without help, 
and in the seventh month began to occupy himself with this movement, instead 
of learning to creep. Meantime, by the middle of the sixth month, he had 
become able to sit alone on a bed, and by the end of the month on the floor. 

It was not until the ninth month that he rather suddenly began to creep, 
and within a week after the first step on hands and knees was creeping 
across the room without stopping. In the tenth month he would creep up- 
stairs. In the same month he could stand, holding by a chair, and in the 
eleventh he stood alone. In the eleventh, too, he could walk a few steps, 
holding some one's hand, and could travel across the room, pushing an inverted 
waste-basket before him. In the twelfth he could take six or eight steps alone, 
and walked quite well with the aid of some one's hand. 

In the thirteenth month he could run alone, and in the fourteenth could 
walk up and down stairs with the aid of a hand. By the sixteenth month notes 
implying perfectly free and confident roaming about occur, — chasing the cat, 
for instance; and in the twentieth he was a great little gad-about, always 
seizing you by the hand and commanding you to '"m 'on ! " In the nineteenth 
month he was very active in climbing on chairs, tables, etc., and tried to climb 
trees: in the twentieth and twenty-first also varied and skillful climbing is noted. 



424 University of California. [Vol. i. 

YOUNGER BOY. 

The baby made efforts to lift his head on the first day, raising it clear from 
the pillow. 

Early in the third month, when propped at an angle of 45°, he would 
lift himself to a sitting position, tipping over at once ; and when fiat on his 
back, he would lift his head and shoulders clear. He had a great desire to sit 
up. At three months old he could sit alone on a bed, but his balance was still 
insecure at five months old. At six months he could sit alone on the floor. 

In the eighth month he tried hard to creep: he would place himself on 
hands and knees correctly, and move his hands, but could not move his legs 
after them, and would soon, therefore, be flat on his stomach, after which he 
would wriggle along. Toward the end of the month he resorted to rolling, and 
though he could not at first steer well, he could move about the floor quite 
rapidly, and in the ninth month learned to steer himself well. In the tenth 
month he would pull himself over the floor by his arms and by pushing with 
his feet. 

It was not until the thirteenth month that he at last began to creep properly. 
He could by this time take a few steps, pushing a chair in front of him ; and 
by the end of the month he could walk about pretty well, holding to a finger. 



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